Discovering the Future
by mirage24
Summary: A routine mission gone awry for SG-1 leaves them stranded in 2032 aboard the seaQuest. But how did the stargate get there and why has the Stargate Program become public knowledge to all world's military? SG-1: ssn7 & SQ: ssn3, pre-Spindrift. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: : I do not own Stargate: SG-1 or seaQuest, nor the characters from either show/world. I am not making money off of this nor do I intend to. This is just for fun!

A/N: Right so... for those who have this story on alert, I just want to apologize for the amount of time that's lapsed between updates. Life's been crazy, school's been busy and work's been somewhere in between. However, the wait's almost over. Basically, I went to write the ending, and then realized I didn't remember what was going on in the story. So I went back through and over-hauled it. The first chapter has the most changes, the rest don't really have as many. Again, yeah. Sorry :D

For those who have just come upon this: I hope you enjoy the ride!

-mirage24

Chapter 1

_Four Weeks Previous to Present_

The water around Tony Piccolo was substantially colder than he normally liked, but he couldn't discount the feeling of complete freedom that swimming in the wide, blue ocean gave him just because of it, either. Besides, as long as his gills were working, he figured it was okay either way. Warm or cold water, it didn't matter. As long as it was water in the end.

Still, even the feeling of complete freedom didn't keep him from being restricted by orders. Back in 2022, he could have swam all we wanted with Darwin, Bridger's dolphin, when he had the time but now Bridger's dolphin was a recognized Ensign and the _seaQuest_ had a new captain—and Hudson didn't like recreational time being set aside for a gilled ex-prisoner in a time of war. Given that, Tony was determined to enjoy this bit of freedom in a time otherwise filled with tension, one both due to war and to adjusting to a new captain.

The truth was that Hudson wasn't any better than Bridger, nor was the reverse true, either. It was just that the crew was in a new time now, and while Bridger was a brilliant tactician when the situation called for it, he just didn't know the world as it was now, at war with Macronesia.

One thing did ring somewhat familiar, although it didn't click in Tony's head until the sparkling caught his eye. He turned his head toward it, swimming forward to its location in the seafloor below.

_What the hell?_

When Piccolo reached the object, he had to uncover quite a bit of sediment that surrounded the sparkling before he realized the enormous size that the object could potentially be.

The similarity, he discovered in that moment, is that they were still uncovering strange objects in the ocean—the last one they discovered being remnants of the lost continent of Atlantis.

Tony depressed the button on his radio. "Piccolo to _seaQuest_. Do you copy?"  
Tim O'Neill's voice came back over the com. "We read you. What's up, Tony?"

"I seem to have found a—well I'm not too sure _what_ it is, but it's huge. Ya gotta see it."

"Biologic?"

"Negative. That's about all I know, Tim. I'd suggest grappling it. It looks pretty sturdy."

"Copy that. I'll relay the request through to Captain Hudson."

"You really think he's interested in s sparkly circle?" Tony asked.

There was a moment's hesitation in response, a moment that seemed to turn into a lifetime for Tony. "Do you want me to leave it or what, Tim?"

"This is Captain Hudson. We're sending out the Specters. Help them attach grapples and secure the item on sea-Deck." Tony heard him say something off-radio to Ensign Wolenczak. "Do not tell anybody that you have found something, even if you say it is a fish. No one. Is that understood?"

"Uh- yes sir. Found nada to nobody."

"Good. ETA two minutes. _seaQuest _out."

* * *

The Present

"Daniel!" Colonel Jack O'Neill shouted as the archaeologist came through the doorway to the Gate Room. "So glad of you to join us."

Daniel Jackson gave it a pause, and looked to Major Samantha Carter who shook her head a negative. Teal'c brow rose as his only response.

"What?" Daniel asked. "I'm not late."

"Yes you are."

"No… no, I'm not," he said, looking down to his watch. He lifted up his wrist, pointed to it and said, "I'm early."

"So were we, making you late."

Daniel took a shallow breath. "Yes, Jack. I'm late."

Carter chuckled to herself. It was great to have the team back again now that Daniel was back, although she did sometimes miss Jonas and his grand curiosity for their planet. Somehow, she found though, Jack was never Jack during the time Daniel had been gone. They were best friends, the best Jack had had since his son had died, when he lost Sarah and then again after losing Kilowasky almost seven years ago. And after Daniel had died and ascended, Jack just didn't seem _right_. It took him almost til Jonas _left_ to go home again, for Jack to finally warm up to him.

Sometime during her thoughts, the gate had started dialing at Walter's hand and careful watch, and now it was about to fully engage.

"So," Jack started out. "Quick recon then go home?"

"That about sums it up, sir," Sam answered.

Daniel nodded. "Sounds good to me."

"Indeed."

The seventh chevron locked and the kawoosh spilled forward before receding like the tide before a tsunami. The team walked up the ramp together, then filed through the stargate one by one.

Jack was the first through the gate, and was surprised to be met with complete darkness.

After the rest of them had emerged from the artificially made wormhole, he complained his concern. "See, _this_ is why we're supposed to send a M.A.L.P. through, Carter."

"The address was on the Abydos cartouche. The government deemed it an unnecessary cost."

Jack flipped the switch on his P90 that turned the flashlight on, the rest of the SG-1 doing the same.

"Unnecessary cost, my ass. Somebody find a light switch please."

Teal'c was the first to find something even resembling one, and when he flipped it upwards, light filled the room.

But so did confusion.

"Okay, someone want to explain to me why this place is so advanced?"

"I thought you said to find a light switch, Jack," Daniel pointed out.

"You know what I mean," he said. It came out frustrated, which he was, although he was more curious now than anything.

"It's not just advanced, sir."

"Carter?"

Sam was over at a panel, looking it over. Daniel came over to where she was standing. "She's right. Sam this is—"

"Is _what_?"

"This technology looks similar to that found on Earth, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said, speculating the same.

"Exactly, sir, watch—" Carter went to flip another switch but just milliseconds before her fingers graced the plastic part, an alarm began wailing.

"Back through the gate. _Now!_" Jack ordered. "Daniel!"

"On it!" the archaeologist replied, already side-stepping back towards the DHD. He got through all the symbols before the door burst open to the room they were in, revealing half a dozen men in military suits.

Jack looked over his shoulder, debating if they would be able to make it through the gate in time. _This is not a good first contact move at all._ To Jack's complete disappointment, the gate did not engage.

Daniel noticed this as he had yet to turn his back around to face the military personnel behind him, ordering the four of them to drop their weapons. _What the hell? Engage!_ Daniel tried dialing again.

"Stop it! Now!" one of them yelled.

"Daniel!"

He hit another three symbols before a gloved hand pulled his arm away, aggressively shoving his body away from the DHD.

"Hey, look—we're peaceful—"

"You are all breaking several severe laws being present on a flagship UEO submarine without clearance," the one who shoved Daniel away said. He was tall, blond and wearing a serious and angry look on his face. "Identify yourselves immediately."

"I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, US Air Force, SGC," Jack said. "I'm in charge. That's Major Samantha Carter."

"I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson, and that's Teal'c."

"SGC?" Brody questioned them.

"Under Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado," Carter supplied.

"That's NORAD."

"Beneath NORAD."

It meant nothing to Brody. "And you're on _seaQuest_ because…?"

"Mind telling us who _you_ are first?"

"Lieutenant Brody, UEO, _seaQuest_. You are all under arrest for trespassing on top-secret UEO property, as well as tampering with classified artifacts."

"You mean the stargate?" Daniel asked.

"He did not question your rank, O'Neill."

Yes. Jack had noticed this as well. Most first contacts involved explaining what the Air Force was. But Jack didn't recognize the organization "UEO" either. He looked to Carter, who was already looking to him for orders on what to do next. He jerked his head at this Lt. Brody in the smallest action and she looked off to the side in response.

No. She didn't know either.

"What's _seaQuest_?" Jack asked.

Brody laughed. "You're kidding me, right?" he asked. After a few moments of blank looks as his answer, he added, "You're Air Force and you don't know? I thought you guys all hated us."

"What's the UEO?" Daniel tried asking.

"United Earths Oceans." Brody was getting frustrated now. Could these guys really be so thick as to not know about the UEO? Or were they spies for Macronesia playing dumb to avoid major consequences of being aboard _seaQuest_ without neither clearance nor permission?

"Earth?" Carter asked.

Jack looked to Carter. "We're supposed to be on P3C-225, Carter. How the hell did we end up on Earth?"

"How _could_ we have?" Daniel echoed.

"It's not _im_possible sir, I—"

"At ease, Brody. Put your weapons down, all of you."

A man with a rank insignia Jack recognized as Captain entered the room. He stood before them, next to the Lieutenant and extended a hand to Jack O'Neill. "It is a pleasure to meet you, sir."

_Sir? A _Captain_ is calling _me_ sir?_

Jack took his hand and shook it. "Likewise. We're peaceful explorers from Earth. We came through the stargate," he said, gesturing to the large device behind him with his left thumb.

"Mm," the captain said, then pressed his lips together in a hard line, thinking something over. "Captain Hudson of _seaQuest_, UEO. While I am pleased to have the chance to meet you, you _have_ boarded my sub without clearance. This is a problem."

"What year is this?" Carter asked. She'd had her doubts the second she looked at the panel. And adding to the fact that she didn't know who or what the UEO was and that the circuitry in the panel was far more advanced than anything _she'd_ ever seen on Earth—_and_ the fact that they were supposedly still _on_ Earth to begin with—things just weren't adding up to present day. Well, _her_ present day, anyways.

"2032, ma'am," Brody answered for the Captain. "Today's date is July 5th 2032."

"Excuse me?"

The last question came from Jack O'Neill.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"You said your base was located under NORAD," Captain Oliver Hudson said.

It wasn't really a question, but Jack decided to answer it anyway. "Yes, sir."

Oliver waved it off. "There hasn't been anything underneath NORAD in years. Not since the Stargate Command."

Teal'c eyebrow rose. "How do you know of this?"

Hudson turned from them slightly to walk toward the stargate. He stood there, gazing at it before he answered, saying, "Only those with high enough security clearance knew about it, even after it was declassified to the world's military. I happened to be one of those lucky enough to have the clearance, due to my search for _seaQuest_."

Colonel Jack O'Neill did not like the way this sounded at all. Something was wrong, from the way the Captain addressed him or neglected to recognize his "sirs" all the way to the SGC being declassified. That wouldn't happen unless the war with the Goa'uld and Replicators was over, and even then… The world he came from wasn't ready to know. "I don't believe any of this. I just want that on a record somewhere."

"It's not impossible, sir," Sam argued.

"You know, you keep saying that but—"

"1969, Jack," was all Daniel said. He knew how it could happen, too, but he didn't want this mysterious UEO figuring that part out.

Fortunately, the mention of the year alone was enough for Jack to get the picture. "How inconvenient, Carter."

"Understood, sir."

"Perhaps we should take this to the Ward Room," Hudson declared. "Would you kindly leave your weapons with Mr. Piccolo?"

"I don't think we're that comfortable quite yet," Jack replied. _Even if I know how we could have gotten here, something still smells amiss_. Granted, he wasn't about to admit that it could have been caused by the oceany smell of the sea-Deck, a scent he wasn't well accustomed to.

"Understandably. This way then," Hudson turned again toward the door, lifting his PAL out of a pocket. He depressed the "speak" button and spoke into the device. "Command Ford, please join me in the Ward Room."

A voice came back over it no more than a few seconds later. "Yes sir."

* * *

"What's _seaQuest_?" Major Carter asked as the group made their way to the Ward Room. "Is this a base?"

"We're not in a compound, Major," Captain Hudson answered her. "This is a UEO submarine."

Colonel O'Neill looked to her. She shrugged. "I have no idea, sir."

Sensing the unspoken question, Hudson assured them, "The _seaQuest _wasn't even a dream until 2015."

"Which is why we've never heard of it," Daniel guessed.

"Shame on me, then. I thought I just didn't get the memo," said Jack.

"Yes sir," Carter chuckled.

* * *

Gathered in the Ward Room aboard _seaQuest_, explanations started flying.

"You'll forgive me for not knowing the full details of the SGC's purpose," the Captain said. "I know that SG-1 went missing over fifteen years ago on a mission to some planet or another and the other basic goings-on's, but I haven't seen another mission file cross my eyes since SG-1's disappearance."

The team looked to each other questioningly but otherwise left that specific topic untouched. The vagueness of the Captain's statement told Carter, at least, that there was much more to it than that.

"Maybe we should start on how you got here?" Ford suggested.

"You'd have to tell us where you got that stargate from first."

Hudson's eyes widened for a moment before saying, "So _that's_ what a stargate is?" He received nods in return.

"Guess it wasn't that declassified after all," Daniel mumbled under his breath.

"On the contrary, Dr. Jackson," Hudson said, coming around one side of the table to finally take a seat beside Commander Ford. "It was, though I was under the assumption that the other device was the stargate."

"That'd be the DHD," Jack waited a second more before saying, "Dial Home Device? No? Never heard of it?"

"What the Colonel means to say," Carter started, ignoring Jack's slight insincerity, "is that the second device controls the stargate; where the wormhole connects to and the crystals that control it are ultimately derived from that device."

"Oh," Hudson replied.

"But how did you get _here_?" Ford asked. "You looked surprised to find yourselves… still on Earth."

Ford wasn't too sure how well that wording sat with him, as people from Earth shouldn't have been able to go to other planets. Not that he was one to talk, of course. Memories of he and the rest of the crew's _excursion_ to Hyperion surfaced in his mind, but he pushed them off for later examination.

Hudson turned to Jonathan, who responded to the unspoken command right away. He grabbed his PAL from his pocket and turned it on.

"Lucas, can you come to the Ward Room?"

"Yeah, I'll be right over."

Jack's eyebrows rose as his suspicion of the _seaQuest_ was ever-growing. It wouldn't be the first time they'd "gone back to Earth" thinking they were home only to find out it was all a lie, a game, or an otherwise unwanted turn of events. The Gamekeeper came to mind, along with the trip back to 1969 and then present-day Antarctica. He shivered at the thought of the last one.

Then again, he had good reason for his suspicion to be livelier this time around: if they were still on Earth, the stargate should have been in the SGC, not aboard a submarine Jack had never heard of. And he had nearly the highest security clearance known to mankind.

The feeling of mistrust died the moment he heard the voice on the other end of the radio, though, as he was distracted by how young it sounded. It seemed too out of place on such an apparently military-run sub.

"I don't think you'll have to bother your crew with this, Captain," O'Neill told him. "I'll bet you Carter's already got a fix on what's going on." He turned to her.

"I, well, yes sir, I do. I'm just not completely sure how we're going to get back."

"Meaning?"

"We must have crossed paths with a solar flare. It's the only possibility I can think of."

"Like in 1969?" Daniel asked.

"Yes, only this time we don't have someone to tell us when the best time to leave to go _back_ is."

"What's up?"

O'Neill turned his attention from Carter's explanation to the… _boy_ that was standing in the now open doorway. A kid? A kid was how these people thought they'd be able to fix it? Now he had seen everything, this he was convinced of.

_He can't be more than nineteen years old_, he commented to himself, thoughts of his _own_ son briefly crossing his mind.

"These people came here through a wormhole, through the stargate sitting on the other end of the sub," Hudson informed the young Ensign.

"Wormhole?"Ensign Wolenczak asked. "That thing makes wormholes? That's not possible."

"Yes it is," Carter said.

Lucas locked eyes with her. "Artificially? And stable ones at that? I don't think so."

Carter nodded.

His eyebrows raised, now incredibly curious as to how that was so. He was no astrophysicist but there was something to be said for that particular subject. "How?" was his one-word response.

"Well, it takes the—"

"Perhaps now's not the best time for that, Carter," O'Neill suggested.

Sam looked to him and smiled. "Yes sir."

"Agreed," Hudson commented to Ensign Lucas Wolenczak.

"Then what do you need me for, if you already know how it works?" the Ensign asked.

"Do you have the technology required to track and predict solar flares?" she asked in return.

Lucas thought for a moment, tacking off a list of equipment—both what they had on the _seaQuest_ and what was purely theoretical—, trying to determine if the feat would be possible. "Maybe," he said slowly. "It'd be difficult if you were looking for a specific time, though."

"Difficult but not impossible?" Ford asked.

"If you've got the machinery I can help, probably even do it by myself to stay out of your way," Carter offered.

"Maybe not impossible, yeah," Wolenczak answered finally. "It's gonna take some time, though."

An idea crossed Carter's mind just then and she turned to Captain Hudson. "You said that only SG-1 had gone missing, correct?"

He nodded. "And the Stargate Program went public to some extent, at least to the rest of the world's military and governments."

"By that point, how did it keep from being exposed fully?" Jackson asked.

"The UEO combined with the remnants of the UN were able to keep it under wraps," Hudson answered.

"That still doesn't explain why I or the rest of the crew has never heard about it, though," Ford asserted.

The Captain turned his attention to Ford then for a moment and said, "It happened while the _seaQuest _was missing for ten years."

Temporarily satisfied with the answer, though sensing something further, Ford nodded.

"Back to my question for a second," Carter said. "If the SGC is still around, there's someone I'd like to try contacting for help. He might be able to get us out of this quicker than me and the Ensign could."

"It's not possible," Hudson said apologetically.

"Why?"

He shook his head. "Too much information that could change the future."

Carter took a deep breath. It was frustrating to know _exactly_ what you had to do to fix something and to _not _have what you needed to _do_ so.

"Can I get a phone number or address for him, then?" she asked.

"Odds are that anyone you knew is well into their old ages by now," the Commander pointed out.

He _did_ have a point, and a good one at that. But it didn't stop Sam from wanting to try. Given the advancements in technology and that man's—though she hated to admit it—_genius_, he might be able to fix the situation much quicker than she could by working with this kid genius, eighty-some-odd-years-old or not. If nothing else, the man's ego would have kept him alive that long.

"I'd still like the chance to try," she told the Captain.

Hudson thought it over for a moment, knowing full well who the Major was referring to. How could he not?

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Daniel asked her. "You know he'd love the chance to prove you wrong for a change."

Carter shrugged. "It's all we got."

"Unless you count me, who you seem to be counting out," Wolenczak interjected.

"It's not that it's just… knowing him, this guy's got the flares all figured out. It's just getting him to slow down enough to put it on paper that's the issue."

Ford glanced briefly at the Ensign. "Could you get a phone number?"

Lucas sighed as the conversation seemed to change from questioning his scientific expertise to calling upon his hacking skills. "If he's in a database anywhere, I'll get you anything you want about him."

"Then do it," Hudson said. "I can't make you any promises, though, Major."

Carter nodded and turned to the Colonel who gave her the go-ahead.

"He's who you have to work with to get us back, anyway."

Cater left, following Lucas to his workstation on the bridge.

* * *

**A/N:** I end up using many references to SG-1's episode from Season 2 entitled "1969". So if you haven't seen it yet or if it's been a while, I'd watch it. Besides, it's a great episode anyways :D .


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Major Samantha Carter now stood behind the teenager, watching his fingers fly over the keys at a speed she'd never seen before. He was currently scouring some Air Force Database she was sure he didn't have the clearance to be in, though she didn't have the heart to say that finding McKay would be as easy as typing in the name on a search engine.

He looked like he was having fun.

Until he ended up with nothing, that is. Ensign Lucas Wolenczak turned his head toward the Major and asked, "Are you sure he was involved with the Air Force?"

Carter nodded. "Yes. Can't you just search 'Stargate Command' or his name? I'm sure something would come up."

In fact, she was betting on it. He couldn't have just disappeared from the scientific community. Carter didn't think McKay was capable of that.

"Well, I've tried everything but that, I guess…" he trailed off, beginning with the search he should have done first—the easier one.

It only took a few seconds for things to start popping up.

"_Someone's_ been busy," he commented before saying, "He hasn't published a paper in a while, though."

"He's probably close to, if not in, his eighties, Ensign."

"True. Uhh, what else do we have…" He scrolled through some files and news clippings, reading them aloud for her as he went waded through them. "Dr. Rodney McKay… worked in contingent with Stargate Command on and off for a few years before heading away for some top-secret project. That took up about five years. When the whole project's crew came back, he ended up staying because the SGC wanted him to work on some device to fight… aliens, I guess. It's not too detailed on just what the device was or what it was to be used for… Uhh… 'Dr. Rodney McKay Deemed Fool for Bridge Thesis' is one article's title. Looks like he was working on creating an inter-dimensional bridge of some sort—"

"Please tell me it didn't work."

She wasn't sure if the statement was made out of concern for the stability of this dimension, or out of jealousy that he had succeeded at something that big.

"…From what I can tell, it was never tested out. But then again, the Stargate Program went unheard of for over twenty years, so who knows whether or not it worked."

"Joy."

"Yeah."

"Anything else?"

Lucas scrolled through some more pages until he found what they were looking for. "Yeah, I can get him on a vidlink for you."

"Can you take the call in the Ward Room?" Ford asked. He had been overhearing most of the conversation.

"Yup," Lucas said before standing and leading the Major back to the Ward Room.

* * *

Major Sam Carter had been slightly nervous about calling the man. Dr. Rodney McKay, though completely infatuated with her, had been her biggest rival for years. Asking him for _his_ help… She took a deep breath and dialed the number the Ensign gave her and waited. Then the screen lit up.

"Hello?"

The man on the other end of the vidlink sure looked like the McKay Sam knew, but he was much older now. Enough where she thought the usual banter between them would have to be kept at bay this time.

"Hi, McKay. It's been a while."

"Who are you again?"

Sam sighed. This would be interesting, especially if SG-1 had disappeared at one point. "It's me, Carter. Sam Carter."

Rodney moved to turn off the vidlink connection.

"Rodney don't! Really! It's me! It'll take some explaining, but it's really me!"

"Carter and the rest of her team have been missing for—"

"I know. We're from the past. We stepped through the stargate at the exact moment a solar flare occurred."

"Well that's… _horrible_ timing, Major." He laughed once.

"I know. We need your help."

"I still doubt it's you though. Been missing for over thirty years and you don't look a day older." He shook his head. "Damn kids. Always playing pranks."

The vidlink was terminated then.

"Alright," Carter said. "Worth the try, I guess."

Lucas nodded slightly, agreeing with the statement. "So."

"So, I guess it's just us then, Ensign."

"You can call me Lucas if you want… I really haven't been in the military that long. Besides, you're a scientific colleague."

"Okay then, Lucas. Call me Sam. Or Carter. Doesn't make a difference. We should probably try figuring out an estimate of how long this is gonna take. The Colonel's going to want to know."

"The Captain, too."

Carter gestured toward the door. "Lead the way."

* * *

"Captain, can I have a minute, sir?" Ford asked, stopping Captain Hudson as he made his way from his quarters to the bridge.

"Yes, Commander?"

"May I speak freely, sir?"

"What is it that you want to know, Mr. Ford?"

"To work on the _seaQuest_, especially to be, say, the Commander, you'd need to have some pretty high security clearance, yes?"

"So why didn't you know about the Stargate Program?" Hudson guessed.

Ford nodded.

"If it makes you feel any better, I didn't know about it until it got declassified."

"By why bother? After so many years of going undetected, why declassify it to the world's military and governments at all? For that matter, why not just go out and tell the whole world?"

"Do you want to be the one to tell the planet Earth that they've been fighting in galactic, sometimes inter-galactic, wars for the last few decades?"

Ford didn't have anything to say to that.

"Exactly, Commander. I believe they were going to say something about it after _seaQuest's_ second interesting _encounter_ with aliens but the UEO got cold feet and backed out. And when you disappeared ten years ago, they may have said something then but of course, that's when all the chaos occurred, and here, Mr. Ford, is where we are today."

"And what happened?" Ford asked.

"Not now, Commander. You're minute's up."

Captain Hudson continued to the bridge, leaving Ford standing confused in the hallway.

* * *

The end of their first day on the _seaQuest_ found SG-1 crammed into four small cots in a room somewhere in the middle of the submarine. While they were given the okay to roam about most parts of the boat, reasonable accommodations—size wise—had yet to be found. But then again, they'd had worse, so none of them were really complaining.

Except for Daniel.

"Did you know they found a piece of the Library of Alexandria?" he asked of the team in general.

"And that's important because?" O'Neill returned.

"That's not the point, Jack."

"Then what is?"

"There really are no plans at all for a sub like this?" Daniel asked.

"Not that I know. Carter?"

She looked surprised. "Uh, no, me neither. It's incredible."

"And they have no knowledge of the Stargate Program?" Teal'c proposed.

Sam shrugged. "I guess not, except for the Captain, anyway. But I'm not sure how much he knows. That Ensign though, he was able to get into databases I don't think _I_ have the clearance to get into. If anyone else has come across it, he has."

"Did he?" Jackson asked.

"I can ask but as of right now I'm not too sure."

"Were you able to get in touch with McKay?" Daniel asked her.

"Yes and no," she answered. "He didn't think it was really me."

"Ah."

"Sir, this is going to take a few days," she said apologetically.

"Yeah," the Colonel said, rubbing his eyes with his palms. "I was afraid you were gonna say that."

"I'm sorry, sir, there's just a lot of work involved."

"Just… take your time with it, Carter. I don't want to end up way the hell in the future again."

"You mean more than we already are, sir?"

Jack sent her a look.

"Yes sir. Understood."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"So, I've got a question for you," Carter started, without looking up from her computer screen as she ran some calculations.

"Yeah?" came the vague reply from Ensign Wolenczak, who was equally involved in his work.

"So you can hack into pretty much anything, correct?" she hazarded.

Lucas took the pen from his mouth and grinned. "Probably." He looked to her. "Why?"

"You never came across anything related to the Stargate Program? Not even the word 'stargate'?"

He thought for a moment, leaning back in his seat. "…No, and I find that weird now."

"Seriously?"

He shrugged, looking back to the computer screen in front of him. "There were a few times when something odd came up. You know, like old invoices for tons of money that were funneled into something that couldn't be traced. Something about a Prometheus Project, too. Was that you guys?"

"Yeah."

"Can I ask what it was? That's an awful lot of money to be thrown under the table for _any_ project, even the _seaQuest_."

"A ship," she said simply, unsure of how much information to give out.

"This one?" Lucas turned his screen around, which was now graced with a picture of an X-303. Sam looked at it for a second, recognizing the design but not the ship. That wasn't the Prometheus, that's for sure.

"Uh, yeah, something like that."

"Sweet. Must have taken a while to build, even longer to get the systems up and running. I wish I could have been a part of that."

"Your parents probably weren't even married yet when that project was being worked on, Ensign."

"Still, if the SGC really was up and running while the _seaQuest_ was, it was probably only a matter of time before I caught wind of it and requested to see Prometheus," he replied smugly, knowing it was probably true. In truth, Lucas knew there was no other place for him but this sub but to work on a project like that…

"How did you end up here to being with?" Sam asked. "I mean, don't get me wrong—"

"But I'm eighteen, I got it," Lucas finished for her. She gave him an apologetic look. "It's alright, I get it all the time. My parents didn't know where else to put me and stuck me here on the _seaQuest_ to learn discipline or something like that."

Though he said it with a disdainful laugh, Carter could tell his feelings about the matter ran deeper than that. Still, she didn't push the matter any further. After all, she'd had her fair share of family issues. She understood.

"Yeah well, if it helps I'm sure things will get better in the end."

"Probably."

That's when quiet took over the room again and Sam couldn't think of anything more to ask. They went back to their work in silence.

* * *

"Captain?"

Hudson looked up from the paperwork on his desk to find Ensign Lucas Wolenczak standing in the doorway to his quarters.

"Yes, Ensign?"

"May I come in? I have a few questions—"

"I'm assuming you found it, then?" Hudson asked.

It had only been about four hours since he found the tape and left Sam to her calculations. Lucas nodded, and the Captain gestured him in."I was going through files with the Major when I found footage taken from a camera that once belonged to the SGC. I didn't show her it but…They're in that footage," Lucas said. "All except for the Colonel. I managed to run an image scan and identify the fourth member of the team."

"And?" Hudson already knew the answer he'd get. He already knew who the fourth person was on the tape.

"Colonel Cameron Mitchell was the only match," Lucas said. "But Colonel Mitchell died shortly after the tape was recorded—right after the rest of SG-1 went missing… But you already knew this, didn't you?"

Oliver Hudson nodded. "And I also know that _this_ SG-1 won't have any idea who that is. We need to get them back to their timeline, the _right_ one. I trust you to do that, Ensign. If history is changed, the threat that the SGC stopped a few years ago may come back. And without SG-1 in place where they _should_ be, we have no hope of re-winning that battle quickly and effortlessly."

"If I can, may I ask what exactly that threat was?"

The Captain thought that over for a moment. Most of the _seaQuest_'s current crew was missing during the climax of the war with the aliens. Sure, they'd run into aliens before but from the reports he'd gotten his hands on, they were nothing quite like _this_.

He wondered though, through all the stories and mission reports he had read, what would have become of the war with the Ori had SG-1 survived to see it through. Still, it was partially the _seaQuest's_ fault in a roundabout way that caused the famed team of inter-planetary explorers to go missing in the first place. Had Alexander Bourne never found the secret they'd stumbled upon accidentally, had he never used his people to abuse it, SG-1 may still be around. Then again, it wasn't as if the crew knew what they had done. Or, to be more specific, what one officer currently aboard the ship had done.

_He probably has no clue it even happened_, Hudson thought of the officer in question.

But the Ensign in front of him knew nothing of it, and neither did the rest of the crew—and neither did this SG-1. And without direct access to the SGC, Hudson couldn't give the team the exact help they wanted. He probably couldn't even get a call patched through to the top-secret base, let alone anyone inside of the complex, to begin with anyways.

Captain Hudson really didn't know what to do or if he should tell the team everything—or anything at all in the first place about what had happened. If he could get his way, Oliver wanted to sit back and let Lucas and the Major figure out a way back for SG-1 on their own, but it didn't seem like the Ensign was going to let him do that.

"Captain?" Lucas prodded when he'd become silent for some time now.

Hudson sat thinking on it just a moment longer before asking, "Do you recall your encounter with the Hyperions and the other race of aliens?"

"Yeah," the teen responded slowly. "What about it?"

"There are more of these 'aliens' out there than just those two cultures."

The Ensign smiled. "Well I sort of figured that. The universe is too big just for us three."

"Some aren't as nice, either." The way Hudson said it wiped the smirk off Lucas' face immediately.

Lucas nodded slowly. "Again, I got that."

"We were in a war with the Ori for nearly two decades before the effort to push them back finally succeeded and they were killed."

The Ensign's eyes widened, focusing on one specific phrase. "Earth survived a war with aliens for almost twenty years? And no one noticed?"

"The fight wasn't brought back to Earth until the end. But by that point, the weapon that killed them was found." Hudson leaned back in his chair. "Apparently Earth has been the battlefield for more than just our own wars, Ensign. Stargate Command had so much under wraps that it's a wonder _any_ of it was declassified fully."

"But we're not at war anymore?"

"Nope."

"And this SG-1 is the key to winning this war again?"

"Well," he said, sitting forward again. "That's the twist here, Mr. Wolenczak. They disappeared before the weapon was found, obviously, but it's the work they did before that which is what needs to stay in place."

Lucas's eyes closed momentarily, his face taking on a puzzled expression.

"Just get them back, Ensign. That's an order."

He looked to the Captain. "Yes sir."

"You've got two weeks. Maximum. I want them gone before the rest of the world finds out about them." Hudson gestured for him to leave, and as he did so Oliver looked down at the folder on top of his desk. In it was the report he had to submit to the UEO within that two week deadline.

It detailed the arrival of SG-1, how they were going to get them back and—most surprising of all—why it's now come to light that the Ensign who just walked out of the Captain's door was at fault for what had happened nearly twelve years ago.

Why he was the reason SG-1 went missing even longer before that.

Why he _really _didn't want to tell Lucas everything.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"O'Neill," Teal'c acknowledged as the Colonel took a seat across from him at a table in the mess hall of the sub. "You have been most unseen since arriving here."

"I don't like it here," he confided. "It's like everyone's got a secret they're keeping from us. Like they all know exactly what's going on but won't tell us."

"We're merely trapped in the future, Colonel O'Neill."

"But," Jack said, lifting a finger, "we're stuck in a future where we," he gestured between Teal'c and himself, "apparently no longer exist—and neither do the Goa'uld. And no one around here seems to know why."

Teal'c lifted an eyebrow. "The Goa'uld are no more?"

Jack leaned back in his chair. "Or so Carter says. Her and that little teenage-brain-boy have apparently talked at length about that stuff. SGC's still around but… they've got nothing big on their plate, and haven't had anything for a while, either."

"A bright future indeed."

"See, that's the thing that worries me. I mean, sure, yeah, it won't take us thirty years to defeat the Goa'uld but for that to be the only big threat out there? That's just… not right, you know?"

"The Replicators," Teal'c pointed out.

"Tiny robots, we'll get them, too," he waved off the suggestion.

The fell into a silence for a moment.

"Maybe you are correct, Colonel O'Neill," the former First Prime said, breaking the quiet first.

Jack leaned forward again, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "Maybe. I think I should talk to Captain and see if he'll answer a few questions."

Teal'c only nodded.

* * *

"Got it!" Lucas shouted in triumph.

Carter looked up from her console and asked, "You did?"

The Ensign nodded happily, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Yeah. Took a couple tries even _after_ calibrating and _re_-calibrating the system to handle it but—"

Carter had stood during the first half of Lucas's explanation but now stood behind him looking at the screen. "But you've done it."

"On board a sub. With a computer built ten years ago."

Carter also grinned, not really believing it. It _couldn't _be that easy. Then again, it truly _wasn't_ all over yet. They'd only managed to find a way to pinpoint a solar flare they could use. The hardest part was yet to come; that is, actually finding one for that specific date and time in the past.

"It's a good start, Ensign. A great start."

"I can't wait to tell the Captain. He won't—"

Lucas's PAL suddenly chirped into life, saying, "Lucas to the Bridge."

* * *

"There's a _what_ on the _seaQuest_!" Hudson demanded to know.

Tim nodded. "A Goa'uld, sir, or so the scanners tell me."

"I didn't know you even knew what those were."

Tim shifted his gaze away from him."I don't, Captain, but the computer practically screamed at me when it detected it, sir."

The doorway to the Bridge opened then and Hudson watched a quickly walking Ensign Wolenczak file through them with a worried looking Major following him.

"You don't have clearance to be up here, Major," Hudson told her.

In fact, the Bridge was one of the few places SG-1 _wasn't_ allowed into.

"She of all people could verify what the bio-scanner's saying, Captain," Tim said quickly.

The Captain frowned slightly. _She shouldn't be up here_. There was too much she could learn and bring back, thereby ruining the time-line even further.

"What are the bio-scanners saying?" Lucas asked, walking straight past Captain Hudson and up to Tim's chirping console.

"Goa'uld."

"On board _seaQuest_?"

Carter tried looking past the Captain. "Did you just say Goa'uld?"

She didn't receive an answer as Hudson stood there debating on her security clearance and Lucas started typing quickly at Tim's station.

"Is someone going to answer me?"

"Ensign, bring it up on screen," Hudson finally ordered.

A large screen came to life on Sam's right and she turned her head to greet the image. The scanner focused on a single body… that had two different signatures coming off of it. If she hadn't known any better, she would have called it a glitch and moved on but… "He's right. Or it's right, rather."

"Where is that?" Hudson asked.

"It's making its way to the sea-Deck."

"From where?"

Lucas shrugged his shoulders in a sign of frustration. It was nearly impossible, at its current location, to say where it might have been headed from. "I don't know, Captain. Maybe the living quarters? That's the closest—"

"SG-1," Hudson said quickly, hoping that his two-and-two put together wasn't what he thought it was. "Somebody get a security detail to SG-1's quarters. Brody and Piccolo, go with them."

"Aye, sir," came the response from the two men as they left their stations.

"What's going on?" Major Carter asked.

Hudson looked back to the Major. "Care to clarify?"

"Do _you_, sir?" she asked. "With all due respect, it's obvious that you know exactly why that Goa'uld might be here. And as for what happened to SG-1 in your time-line, before we disappeared, I'm betting you know that, too."

"Maybe I do." Hudson turned to Lucas. "Any progress on returning SG-1 safely to their own time?"

The Ensign nodded. "We've got the calculations down but—"

"Good. See to it that you finish the project. And Major, why are you still standing here when the rest of your team might be in danger?"

Something clicked in Carter's head just then. Something she didn't like.

He was holding something back. And not just from SG-1 but quite possibly the whole crew as well. His _own crew_. Shouldn't he have been quick to take action and search the quarters as well?

She shook her head and started jogging toward the Mag-Lev.

* * *

The Mag-Lev was crowded with un-bothered crew members and Major Carter found it suffocating to be inside of while her team may have been in trouble. Not that she didn't think they couldn't have held their own but—

The moment the Mag-Lev doors opened she ran down the hall and found the security detail already in place, checking the scene. She brushed past a few of the officers, including Lieutenant Brody, pushing her way into the room.

"About time, Carter!" the Colonel barked.

She stopped at the sight of Jack holding an ice-pack to his face. "What happened, sir?"

"While you were off calculating the universe and all its wonders a _Goa'uld_ was attacking us."

She winced. "I know that part."

"You knew?" Daniel asked, now coming to stand closer to Jack and Sam.

Teal'c now also joined them in the middle of the room. "I find it doubtful that our presence here, as well as that of Goa'uld's, are completely coincidental."

"Agreed," Colonel O'Neill commented, then pointed his next question to Carter. "How did _you_ know?"

"The Captain—The _seaQuest_'s outfitted with a bio-scanner that picked up the Goa'uld signature. I—"

"That's it!" Jack barked. Though it was done so in a quiet tone, it was sharp enough to cause his team's eyebrow's to raise.

Jack was pissed.

"Colonel?" the Major asked.

He stood up, throwing the ice-pack to the floor. "I want to know what's going on. Now!"

"Sir—"

"That damned Captain knows more than he's letting on to—"

"The future—"

"_What_ future, Carter? _This_ is the present for us right now and I don't give a damn about relatively _crap_. This is _our_ present and a Goa'uld just snuck aboard a top-secret _submarine_ to come and _kill_ us. That's _not_ okay and _not_ coincidental. And Hudson knows why!" Jack headed for the door.

"Sir!" Carter called after him.

Brody put a hand out. "Sir, I can't allow you to—"

"Out of my way, _Lieutenant_."

Brody looked to both Piccolo and Carter before just letting Jack pass, the rest of SG-1 in tow.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Doctor Allen Carter watched from around a corner as an angry Air Force Colonel and his team filed quickly out of a room to the left. As they hurried on by, he zeroed in on each of their faces, scrutinizing and studying each one of them until it became clear that his eyes were not, in fact, fooling him.

It _was_ SG-1. And the rumors he'd heard around the sub were _not_ false.

His superiors were not going to like this at all. Not at all.

* * *

Jack O'Neill was pissed. Jack was frustrated. Moreover, he was more curious than he thought he'd _ever_ been, though it wasn't felt with childish innocence undertone. There had been a _Goa'uld_ on the _seaQuest_—theoretically the single most top secret… sub… base…whatever that he'd ever known. Or at least that's what he thought.

And that damn Captain treated it like it was almost nothing that SG-1 was attacked.

The bottom of his fist connected with the door once more. "Open up already!"

"Colonel, you can't keep banging on the bulkhead like that," Daniel said.

"Oh? Watch me." His fist was aimed for another blow but Teal'c grabbed his wrist.

"DanielJackson is correct."

"I'm _not_ playing this game any… more," he finished slowly as the bulkhead doors began to swing open.

"Come on in Colonel," Captain Hudson said, standing in the doorway. "And everyone but the Senior Staff and Piccolo are dismissed.

Half a dozen heads nodded and sounded off a mantra of "Aye, sir" as they left their stations and departed from the Bridge.

Hudson gestured to the middle part of the room. "Colonel."

Jack's eyebrows rose. _What's he up to now?_

"Ensign, bring up the footage. But don't play it yet."

"Yes, sir," Lucas responded, though he was already performing the task. He figured that's where the Captain was going when he ordered the rest of the crew out of the Bridge.

The bulkhead doors closed behind SG-1 as they made their way to the center of the room.

"Footage?" Major Carter asked.

"On SG-1's last mission through the stargate some years ago, Dr. Jackson's video camera caught the last few minutes of all but one team member's life."

"I thought you said we just went missing," Daniel asked nervously.

"You did," Hudson said. "But you've been missing for so long now that it's just assumed you were all killed in action."

A flare of frustration flashed through Colonel O'Neill. "Then why bother watching the video, aren't you just screwing up the future by showing us it?" he asked.

"He's got a point, Captain," Lucas said from his station. "Right, Major?"

Sam nodded, confirming the notion for a third time. "If we all watch the moment of our… death, that action in and of itself is changing the future drastically."

"As the Ensign would already know," he said, briefly glancing to Lucas, "Not all of you were on the tape."

"Still—"

"Carter, just let him talk," O'Neill ordered her.

Sam frowned. _We _really_ shouldn't be shown this_.

"If you don't mind me asking," Brody spoke up, "why are we still here?" He gestured to most of the people still in the room.

"I need my senior staff to know what's going on incase more attacks happen, Lieutenant."

It took most of Ford's self-control not to bring it to the crew's attention that not too long ago, Captain Hudson didn't want _anyone_ knowing _anything_—even the Commander himself. He wanted to ask him what made the Captain more qualified to know this information anymore than the rest of them—especially if some of it was common knowledge. Was it just because they were gone for ten years?

Somehow that didn't seem fair. Actually, he _knew_ it wasn't fair. But there was nothing he could do about it.

"Ensign, play the footage."

Sam watched as the larger screens from before lit up and started playing a fuzzy video. She recognized the slight choppiness as being from Daniel's camera—which meant the Captain wasn't making stories up just to explain the presence of a Goa'uld here on the submarine.

When the video actually started forming a continually coherent set of images, Carter watched them convey the setting of a temple in ruins. Or, that's what it appeared to be any way. Definitely ransacked by the Goa'uld, possibly Ancient in origin. She wanted to ask Daniel to confirm the suspicion but decided to wait until after the video was finished.

_"__Looks just like all the other labs we've found."_

She found she recognized that voice, as she should have. It was Daniel's.

"_Indeed. I do not think we will find anything of value here."_

Teal'c's.

"_I'm not leaving until we're sure. Too much's riding on this."_

"_Agreed."_

The second was her but the first one to speak just then…

"Who's that?" Jack asked the question they were all wondering.

"Watch the rest of it, Colonel," Hudson instructed.

"_Still…" Daniel said, the camera's image swinging around as he did. "I think Teal'c's right—Oh!"_

"_Oh?" the voice Sam didn't recognize said. "Jackson?"_

_The camera started shaking in time with someone walking quickly. "What's this?"_

"_Jackson, what've you got?"_

"_Here, hold this—"_

_The camera's view caught a glimpse of the unknown person's face as Daniel handed the device to him. Then you could see Daniel brushing away at some wall, uncovering some writing._

"_That's Ancient."_

"_It's an Ancient lab, Mitchell."_

"Mitchell?" Sam found herself ask quietly while watching the tape.

"_Does it say anything about the San Graal?"_

"_Uh—"_

A huge explosion then rocked the screen and the camera was dropped to the ground on its side. You could see feet moving quickly and hear orders being barked by both Sam and this other guy, suggesting that they were both of the same rank.

Then silence.

"_Carter?... Jackson?... Teal'c?..."_

A beat passed before camera's picked up again.

"_Hello? Guys, this isn't funny… Ow—oh, god. Shit!"_

The camera got angled downward but all it showed as blood.

_The man pointed the camera at himself. "It's Mitchell. In case I die before the check-in happens, I have no idea what just happened to the rest of my team. We were attacked completely out of the blue. Carter, Teal'c, Daniel—a bright light—nothing—I don't know."_

In the background they heard a stargate engage.

The camera shook as the man reached for his radio.

"_This is Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell… SG-1… authorization—screw it, come help me _now!_"_

That's when the video ended.

Daniel blinked a few times, not really believing what he saw. An Ancient lab? The San Graal?... He'd sounded so sure in the tape of whatever he was talking about but _this _Daniel had no clue just what that was.

Jack found himself looking at Sam, her eyes reflecting the same question.

Jack wasn't on the tape… so who was this Cameron Mitchell? And what had just happened to SG-1?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

When SG-1 didn't immediately comment on the tape, Captain Oliver Hudson cleared his throat and looked to his Commander, who stood there as quietly as the Colonel himself.

"I guess I'll start off by saying that the Lt. Col. did, in fact, make it back to the SGC relatively okay."

"Relatively?" Daniel was the first to ask.

"He was greatly injured and died shortly afterwards."

"Who is he?" Sam asked. She almost felt like she should have known the answer to that already.

At this, Captain Hudson shrugged. "As I've said before, I don't know much about the specifics of the SGC, but I was told when I was shown this footage some years ago that he was put onto SG-1 after the Colonel here departed for retirement following a short stint as Brigadier General of the SGC itself."

Jack's eyebrows raised. _General? _So _that's_ why Captain Hudson deflected his "sirs".

He was currently undecided on how he felt about the whole thing.

"What happened?" Ford found himself asking out loud. "On the tape, sir?"

"We were attacked," Daniel said, answering the question himself. "Obviously."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed. "But it is unclear as to who or what attacked us."

"Well if the Ancient writing is any sort of clue, maybe the Goa'uld followed us to a library of theirs, or something to that effect," Sam added.

Daniel shook his head. "I don't think it was a library. They said they were in a lab. And the _San Graal _sounds more like an object than a book." His mind was already trying to dissect the possibility of what it was.

While his team discussed the tape, Jack's eyes remained transfixed on the now blank screen as his mind replayed some of the images that were just shown there. More questions than answers started surfacing, the two most important ones being first: what happened to the rest of SG-1 after the tape was recorded; and second: how did footage like _this_ make its way into a non-Air Force sub and into the hands of a Captain who either knew too much and wasn't saying anything, or didn't know as much as he thought he knew.

"It wasn't the Goa'uld, Doctor Jackson."

That seemed to silence the team, and Hudson was happy for it.

Unfortunately, it also snapped O'Neill out of his silent questioning for he asked, "Then who?"

"The Ori," Hudson answered. "Though more likely their foot soldiers, followers of Origin to be even more precise."

"Meaning?"

"Sir?" Ford questioned.

"Doctor Jackson, could you enlighten my crew on who the Ancients were—are?"

Caught off guard, the archaeologist stumbled to find a good way to put it. "They're, uh, ascended beings who created the stargate system and created life in this galaxy. But if you don't mind me asking, what does that have to do with these Ori? Even the Goa'uld are no match for the Ancients."

"If they ever did anything but sit on their asses all day, you mean," Jack quipped.

Daniel shot him a quick _well yeah_ look.

"They are also ascended beings, originally from the same ancestry as the Ancients, apparently. But they broke off and started their own way of doing things, and Origin is the religion they use to gain followers and subsequently power as well."

"Ascended?" Piccolo asked from his station?

Carter turned to him and said, "The Ancients were able to evolve enough to turn their bodies into pure energy and live on another plane of existence."

A whispered, "Whoa," could be heard from were Ensign Lucas Wolenczak was sitting.

"They don't follow the non-interference laws that the Ancients do?" Daniel asked of the Captain.

"The what?"

"He probably doesn't know," Jack said.

"There is probably a lot he does not have knowledge of, Colonel O'Neill."

"I'm getting that picture, too," Sam agreed quietly. "It's like these guys got half the story, and none of the important parts."

"Quite like you lot," Hudson interrupted, though it was more like "challenged".

"Touché," Jack admitted.

"Now that we've got that understood, can we move on?"

Jack nodded.

* * *

Alaron watched from a vent above the Bridge as the Captain attempted to explain years worth of history in minutes. But what caught her attention the most was the infamous team dubbed SG-1 standing more or less in the middle of the room.

_Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter,_ her mind ticked off the list of people that apparently made up this mix. _Doctor Daniel Jackson and the Shol'va Teal'c._

A part of her wondered if his death alone would give her enough power to raise her own army once more. The Goa'uld, of course, were still around, though the System Lords were dead and long gone by now.

* * *

Similarly, Doctor Allen Carter watched the briefing from the computer in his quarters. Hacking into the security cameras nothing short of easy child's play—he'd done more for the NID even _before_ landing a job with them.

But a Goa'uld on board surely added quiet the wrench into his plan. What if it got to them before he could? What if the Major and that kid got them home before he _or_ the Goa'uld could strike?

The latter worried him more than anything else.

* * *

"So your SG-1 went missing during that mission, correct?" Daniel tried sorting through it all for a fourth time. "Just… _disappeared_?"

Hudson nodded. "It appears as much. Mitchell dropped quickly into a coma following his return to Earth, and died only days after that. The camera didn't get anything else that you didn't see and the only other survivor was a Marine who also up and disappeared after handing in his resignation shortly after the mission flopped."

"There was a Marine there, too?" Jack asked, picking up on the bit of information Hudson had been holding back up until that point.

"A team of them, yes. I'm not sure why, or what other team that was, though."

"I could probably find out," Lucas chimed in.

The Captain turned to him. "I'd be surprised if those reports were even still out there to begin with, Ensign."

"But if it's out there—anywhere—I'll find it."

Hudson definitely had no doubt about that. He was still trying to think of a way to break it to the Ensign—if he should even tell him in the first place—that his jaunt to a certain Node was the reason they all had to have this conversation in the first place.

But they weren't there yet, though they were rapidly approaching that point.

"I'm more interested in why it's such a huge deal in the first place," Carter said. "We went missing—so what?"

Jack and Daniel sent her a look at the same time while Teal'c raised his eyebrow.

"Okay, not like that, guys, but you get what I mean, right? We're a frontline, flagship team in the midst of inter-planetary war. It could happen to any SG team and has in the past. So aside from the fact we usually make it out alive by the skin of our teeth, what makes this mission so different?"

_Nearing that point very, very quickly_, Oliver mused to himself. "The Air Force has suspected foul play ever since.

"Why?" Teal'c was the first to ask, which surprised the rest of SG-1.

"You were in an Ancient lab," Hudson said simply.

"And?" Jack prompted.

"No mirrors, nothing that looked like a cloaking device…" Daniel answered for him. "Nothing to suggest any other kinds of beaming projects."

"We only saw a portion of the room from the tape, Daniel," Sam reminded him. "Anything could be in there."

"But we were in there looking for a weapon. And from the sound of it, we knew what we were looking for. Why would we touch anything else?"

"We would not," Teal'c admitted. "Perhaps the Air Force is correct in assuming there was foul play present at the time of this mission."

"Especially if that footage really was stolen from the SGC before being recovered later on," Hudson pointed out."

"The Marines?" Sam asked.

Hudson nodded. "They were one suspect among many, yes."

"The others being?" Daniel asked.

"Section Seven," the Captain stated plainly.

"What?" For asked. "Why would they—"

"Or the NID, rather," Hudson caught himself. "I forget they didn't always go by that name. They've evolved slightly since their Division days."

"NID?" Jackson asked, though it was more of a rhetorical question than anything else.

"Wonderful," Jack commented with a heavy sigh.

"But we don't believe it was solely their doing," Hudson said further. "In fact, we _know_ it was a combined effort between a small number of parties. One of them including a person some on this sub know quite well."

"Sir?" Ford inquired, but it was to Lucas that Hudson directed his answer.

"I believe you, Ensign, know him as Mycroft."

The Ensign's jaw dropped at the name.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Do I even want to know?" was the only response Lucas had to that.

"I believe you already do," Hudson answered, waiting for the Ensign to put it together for himself.

"Nothing happened at Node 3 that would even—" But he couldn't even finish the sentence as the realization hit him that maybe, just maybe, something _did_ happen that— "The money," he said simply, not quite a question and yet more than a statement at the same time. His head rolled back momentarily as flashes of his visit to Node 3 passed through his mind, the ones of Mycroft and Juliana being most prominent.

"You were only there for a few days," Ford said. "_Years_ ago. How could that have anything to do with it?"

"Mycroft had me—all of us—hacking into banking systems, sending money where he thought it should go to 'help make the world a better place' or something like that," Lucas began. "But when we realized he'd gone too far—or was definitely about to—we stopped it. I stopped it."

"But?" Ford prompted.

"But the damage was done before the line Martin Clemens crossed was over and done with, isn't that right, Ensign?"

Lucas looked to Captain Hudson. "It was one of the smaller transactions, wasn't it? Something before we hit the World Bank?"

"World Bank?" Tim asked from his station. "You guys hacked into the World Bank?"

Lucas nodded. "Could have sent all the money in its possession to the UEO if I wanted to—your bank account, maybe—but we didn't. It all went back to where it was supposed to be."

"Except for a few hundred thousand dollars," the Captain pointed out.

Lucas nodded again.

"And that money hit the NID, didn't it?" Sam asked, following the conversation in close detail. "And let me guess, they were working on their own version of a time-travel project."

"Probably using Goa'uld technology," Daniel cut in.

"I highly doubt that, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said. "I believe, if anything, that the NID was experimenting with technology belonging to the Ancients."

"I think T's right," Jack said.

Carter's eyebrow rose. "That's jumping to a lot of conclusions, Colonel."

Jack turned his attention to the Captain. "But we're right, aren't we?"

"Time-travel, yes," Hudson nodded. "Though I know nothing about these Ancients you keep talking about."

"Why would they go back in time to kill us?" Daniel asked. "I mean, yeah, we're not the best of friends but… even for them, that's low. Too out of character."

"Really? You think so?" Jack asked.

"You don't think…" Daniel didn't have to say the rest.

"Maybourne's last wishes? NID's last grand stand?"

"Jack."

"Daniel?"

"That's ridiculous."

"They've kidnapped Carter before. Why not just kill all of us and make their lives that much easier?"

While they had been talking, Ford had taken a few steps toward Lucas's station. "Why would Mycroft go through you just to send them money? Couldn't he do it himself?"

"Expertise comes with time, yeah, but… with time, people come to recognize your work. He probably didn't want to take the chance that someone might track his way of going about things back to him."

"So he had you do it."

"Unsuspectingly and perfectly," Hudson chimed in. "You didn't even know what you were doing."

Lucas bit the inside of his cheek. Their deaths—disappearance—was his fault. Because of something he did over ten years ago, indirectly or not.

His guilt went unnoticed when the blast doors opened on the bridge.

"I thought I ordered everyone out of here!" Hudson said, voice laced with some degree of anger as he stepped toward the now half-open doors. A woman shot through them, gun in hand, and struck an unsuspecting Captain Hudson across the face with it. During the short time it took him to recover, it seemed, Jack was already formulating a swift action-plan.

"Everyone is to remain at their stations," the woman said before turning her attention to Hudson. "Captain, I'd advice your people to not send out any clever distress calls as this will only take a minute."

Oliver nodded. "Do it."

Ford looked temporarily displeased with the action, but said nothing other than, "What do you want?"

The woman's eyebrow rose. "Me? I want SG-1 dead, except for the Shol'va, whom I will bring back with me to the surviving System Lords in order secure my place in the new Order."

Jack shared a quick look with Teal'c, both assessing that they had never met whoever this woman was. And so Jack asked, "And you are?"

Her eyes glowed quickly, sending a flash of panic through the _seaQuest_ crew members who weren't as versed in Goa'uld traits as SG-1 was. "Alaron, and your death."

The Colonel smirked. "The arrogance of you guys… some things never change."

"Colonel," Carter warned quietly, the unspoken question of 'what are we going to do next?' ringing in the background.

Jack's hand, down by his waist, moved in a "clam down and hold on" motion that both Carter and Daniel picked up on. Teal'c, however, didn't see it and chose to strike immediately anyway. He lunged at Alaron who, since joining the group on the Bridge, had made her way significantly toward SG-1. She noticed but wasn't prepared for the Jaffa's sudden attack and just barely dodged it, aiming the gun at him.

"I wouldn't, if I were you. I know you are no longer in possession of your symbiote," she warned.

"I shall find a way to persevere." As he went for her again, Ford jumped in to help. A shot rang out and while the rest of the crew on the bridge couldn't tell who was hit, they were sure it was a successful one. Hudson yelled for security to be ordered onto the Bridge while Teal'c continued to wrestle with Alaron, allowing for little time for Ford to join in. Instead, he stepped back, trying to assess who was hit when the gun went off. Both aliens seemed uninjured, but he was sure _someone_ was hit.

Brody and his small team of security officers barged their way through the bulkhead doors, firing unbiased in the direction of the wrestling pair. Alaron, who was on top, received most of the blast which knocked her unconscious, which allowed time for Brody's crew to apprehend and bind her, dragging her off of the Bridge and to the isolation chamber on sea deck where Hudson ordered her to be taken.

With the fight over, especially knowing the Jaffa wouldn't want Jack to intervene, the rest of SG-1 crowded around Teal'c. Jack placed his hand on Teal'c arm and asked, "You alright?"

"I am fine."

Teal'c tried to sit up, making it about halfway before wincing and laying back down.

"T?"

He looked down at his side, and upon seeing the blood for the first time, announced, "I have been shot."

"Medical team to the Bridge!" Ford shouted.

The rest was all a blur to Teal'c.

* * *

"And these Goa'uld are, what exactly?" Ford asked.

"Pretty damn strong, if you ask me. That chick kept the big guy down for the count," Brody answered from his seat at the Ward Room table.

"Earth's enemies from before you drove your first car, actually, Commander," Hudson answered. "But that's all I know."

"Is it, though?" Ford challenged. "Like the Major said, you've got half the story. But which half is it?"

"Excuse me?"

Jonathan backed down a step or two. "What I mean to say, sir, is… do you know the half about what actually happened with the SGC and SG-1, or the half about what happened on that mission? You talked about these Ori like you knew exactly what was going on, when it was going on and you should, because you were there, you lived through it and whatever wasn't classified was _declassified_ to you at least at some point in time. But that doesn't explain the rest, the other bits and pieces you know."

"Meaning?"

"… It appears as though SG-1, in their own time, are still fighting the Goa'uld, not these Ori, right? So that's a long time ago, even for you, sir. But it's like you're obsessed with what happened to this team, like I've been told you were with finding the _seaQuest_. It's not like you necessarily _knew_ they'd end up on the _seaQuest_ one day but… almost like you were expecting them to show up eventually."

"Only as much as I expected the _seaQuest_ to make an appearance, I assure you that much, Commander," Hudson replied. "As for my apparent _obsession_… I just know a lot about what happened with the mission during which SG-1 disappeared. That's all."

"And these Goa'uld?"

"Enemies from long ago, that's it. For more, you'd have to ask one of them."

"They're parasites, essentially."

The three navy men turned to find Colonel Jack O'Neill in the doorway to the Ward Room.

"Snakes in the head and that kind of stuff," he continued, making his way slowly into the room. "They burrow up into your head and take control of your body—it's not fun, believe me. In fact, it's the farthest thing from fun."

"How's Teal'c?" Ford asked.

"Resting," he answered. "For now. The doctor says he's out of the woods but we've only got so much Tritonin left before… well, let's just hope we're gone before that, shall we?"

"Tritonin?" Hudson inquired.

"It's what's keeping him alive. He's a Jaffa, and so used to have a symbiote, a larva form of the real deal. But then he lost it and it's life-preserving abilities. Tritonin is a drug that was developed to replicate that, thereby helping to free the Jaffa from their reliance on the Goa'uld. They needed to use a bunch of what we had with us to help him with the more immediate recovery so… we've got enough for a couple days but after that, we'll be in trouble. Unless, of course, the SGC is still around and we could get some. But good luck explaining to them why you have a Jaffa aboard the _seaQuest_, right?"

Jack did make a good point, Hudson had to give him that. And, he guessed, he really _didn't_ know all the important parts, like the Major had pointed out to him earlier. "Well then, let's get your team back as soon as possible."

"After we question the Goa'uld."

Hudson's eyebrow raised.

"Please, like I'm going to let her attack us in the _future_ without asking what's going on."

"Alright then. Let's get to it."

"Thank you, Captain."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The Colonel circled Alaron, who sat bound to a chair somewhere in within the confines of the Brig aboard _seaQuest_, quietly, anxiously. He was waiting, impatiently, for her to make the first move. For her to say something first. But when she came forward with nothing, Jack decided to ask the first question.

"Why are you here?" he asked her.

"Why are you?" she quipped back calmly, eyes locking with his.

Jack's eyes narrowed. "How long have you been on Earth?"

"How is the Shol'va? Still alive, I hope?"

Jack stopped pacing, pounding his hands on the table. "Why are you _here_? _No one_ knows SG-1 is even still _alive_!"

Her eyebrows rose, mimicking—and mocking—the expression she'd already seen Captain Hudson use multiple times in the last two hours. He noticed it, too, and it caught the good Captain off guard, making him even more uneasy than he already was to begin with. He had an _alien_ on board… and now that alien was mocking him.

"And yet here you are," she said finally. "With enough air in your lungs to scream like the barbarians you humans are."

"Son of a—" Jack's arm lifted and his body moved to lunge across the table, but Hudson stepped in and grabbed him, pulling him back. "Colonel…"

"You are not supposed to be here… And that is why I am," Alaron said, a smirk plastered across her face. "How could I pass up _this_ opportunity?"

"Easy," Jack spat. "Just pass it up and move on. You're greatly confused as to what's going on around here right now."

"How did you know?" Hudson asked, ignoring Jack's comments.

"That doesn't really matter so much, does it?"

"What do you want?"

"Like it wasn't clear from the start, from the incident on the Bridge?" Jack answered for her. "She wants us dead, just like every other Goa'uld out there. Only she's got her facts mixed up."

"But they were supposed to be dead, a _long_ time ago," Hudson said to Alaron. "Why are you still hanging around here?"

"I was making a detour trip to a nearby system when I heard the chatter. I could hardly believe it, so of course I came running."

"Should we be expecting more hostiles to make an appearance?" Hudson asked.

"No, probably not. No one bothers with this tiny excuse for a civilization anymore, after they destroyed the Ori and all. Their own governments have taken care of doing the damage for us, of destroying anything worthwhile."

The Captain couldn't argue with that. It was true. And now Alexander Bourne was trying to decimate what little was left. But he couldn't very well go telling the Colonel that. Too much information, and he would be sure to irrevocably change the future for good.

Hudson's eyes narrowed just as his PAL chirped to life.

"Captain, this is Lucas. We have a problem."

He grabbed the PAL from its holster, holding it closer to his head, eyes never leaving Alaron.

"What kind of problem, Ensign?"

"My kind of problem."

_Or in other words,_ he added in his head. _Someone's hacking into _seaQuest.

"Lovely. I'll be right there. Colonel?"

"I got this."

Hudson nodded. He was sure he did… he just didn't necessarily want to leave Jack alone with the alien. "I'll send Commander Ford down to assist."

"Yessir."

* * *

When Hudson rejoined his crew on the Bridge, the scene was completely chaotic. The second the blast doors opened, he heard sirens wailing and saw half a dozen people running between different stations as they attempted to systematically find the origin of the problem.

One of the few people remaining at any one station was Ensign Wolenczak, and Hudson crossed the bedlam to the young man's station immediately.

"No Air Force shadow today?" he snapped, the frustration in his voice more dude to the surrounding chaos more than anything else.

Hudson let it go but asked, "What's going on here, Ensign?"

Lucas took a deep breath, opening his eyes wide and blinking to rid of some of the dryness that was there from staring at his station's computer screen for so long. "I'm not sure."

"Well that's definitive."

"I'm sorry sir, it's just that the computers—half the stations are reversed and keep on _getting_ reverted," he said, gesturing to the officers running about before returning his attention back to the computer screen, "hence the constant station changing. I want to say it's a virus but really it's more like someone's playing around with the system somewhere, and they're doing it from a location I haven't been able to track yet." He looked up at the Captain with serious eyes. "Honestly sir, it's got to be an inside job. There's very few places on _seaQuest_ someone could do that from. The Bridge being one of them… but take a look around at who's here. It's not any of us," he looked around at some of his closest friends.

"Brody!" Hudson shouted.

The Lieutenant appeared almost immediately.

"The Ensign's going to give you a list of locations to check around _seaQuest_, take a team and check them out. Find anyone suspicious, take them into custody. No exceptions. And Ensign?"

Lucas took his eyes off the screen for that one moment. "Turn that damn alarm off already."

"Yessir." He tapped a few key strokes and the siren died.

"Thank you. Now work on fixing the problem with the stations first before you do anything else."

Lucas nodded and went back to work, Brody disappearing with a small team behind him.

* * *

"So he needs the Tritonin to survive?" Doctor Perry asked Major Carter who, along with Daniel, hadn't left Teal'c side since he was brought in here.

She nodded but otherwise said nothing.

"He'll be fine," she continued. "I wouldn't worry. He seems strong."

"He _has_ been through worse," Daniel said. "We all have."

"Still," Sam argued, holding up the vial with a small amount of the drug left in it. "We've got maybe two days left and then he's on his own. Unless, of course, Hudson can get us more." She looked up at the Doctor. "The SGC's got to still be around, right? Can't he just ask for more without telling them why he needs it? Can't he just claim it's for scientific research?"

Doctor Perry didn't know, but she nodded anyway, promising to do what she could to get some before leaving the room.

Daniel looked to Sam. "You should go back to work on getting us home… just in case."

She glanced back and forth between he and Teal'c a few times before prying herself away.

"Yeah. You're right. Okay. Back to the lab. Back to work," she muttered to herself as she walked away.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Cybertron. Although, that would be pretty neat.

Chapter 10

"I'm already _here_, Lucas. There's nothing. No one." Brody was getting frustrated with this game of cat and mouse. This was the third room he had checked, and it appeared that the Ensign's estimate of "only a few places" in which someone could mess up the Bridge's systems had expanded into half a dozen. "What happened to just a couple rooms?"

"You've covered those already," Wolenczak stated hotly. He was just as frustrated.

There _were_ only x-number of places someone could tamper with the _entire _Bridge system from, unnoticed and out of the way. Places you had to have a certain security level to get into. The Bridge, like he told Captain Hudson, was one of them. Wolenczak's own quarters was another. Engineering. The once science deck.

Hudson could kick the scientific contingent off the boat, but he couldn't erase the sections specifically designed for them.

"You'll have to run through them again, then," Lucas continued after a moment. On the Bridge, chaos still ensued, and he wasn't sure he could keep his focus for that much longer. At least with the alarm off, it was easier to concentrate. But a boat with messed up systems was one that was dead in the water. Useless. Defenseless.

Vulnerable.

And they'd already had _one _near fatal Bridge attack.

"We don't have time for that!" Brody hissed. "We—"

"Hold on." Lucas' station chirped and he ran his fingers over the screen, following the lines of code. He'd programmed a tracking macro to find and show on his screen the virus when the program found it. It looked like whoever was behind all of this was still _writing_ the damned thing. Lucas smiled. "Gotcha. Lieutenant, head toward my quarters. Looks like someone's trying to frame Tony and I." He grabbed his PAL, seeing Piccolo's concerned glance in his peripheral vision. "Captain, I think we've got 'em. I'm going to start working on the virus now." He put the radio down and looked toward his roommate. "Your posters are probably fine. Stop worrying."

Tony laughed and sauntered off the Bridge.

* * *

"Carter!"

Sam's head snapped up in surprise at the sound of Jack's voice and stood to attention.

"Yes sir!"

"At ease, jeez, Major," he said, waving her down and gesturing toward her seat. "Took you long enough to respond."

"I didn't…"

"Three times."

She grimaced. "Sorry, sir."

"It's fine," he said. "What do you have?"

Sam grimaced again. "An approximate time we _could_ be going back. Nothing definite… right now we'd be showing up earlier rather than _after_ we left for…"

"P3C-225," Jack supplied.

Major Carter smirked. "Yeah, P3C-225."

"And what's so wrong with that? If we don't go…"

"Well, yeah, but I'm more afraid of what will happen if we get back too early. If we arrive back in our time _after_ we 'gate to P3C-225—"

"Cybertron from now on, Major."

Carter looked frustrated for a moment but then conceded to the nickname. "Yes, sir, if we get back in our time _after_ we got to… Cybertron, then there will be less of a risk."

"Risk, Carter?"

"Cybertron?"

The new voice in the conversation caught them off guard. It was Commander Ford, standing in the doorway.

"Yeah, Cybertron, you know? Transformers? Nothing?"

"Colonel…"

"Yeah… sure," Ford said, turning his attention to the Major. "Any progress?"

"Yes, actually. I've narrowed down the field we need to be looking in, but I'll need the Ensign for further calculations." She looked to him. "He's a real bright kid, Commander. You guys are lucky."

Ford nodded. "He is."

"Where _is_ he?"

"Trying to fix the Bridge systems. Last I heard they were working on the virus itself. As soon as we're up and running again, he's all yours, Major."

Sam nodded but Jack was more curious. "What's wrong with the Bridge?"

The Commander shook his head. "Someone, somewhere on board, got each station to flip to another one, and then has them continuing to do so. Lucas is on it but…"

"But?" Jack pressed.

"They think they know who did it. They're bringing him in now."

Colonel O'Neill stood. "Then let's go."

"No. It's an inside job, _seaQuest_ personnel only. Sorry, Colonel."

"How do you know it doesn't have to do with us?" Jack pressed.

"If it did, they would have come _after_ us, sir," Sam said. "Not the Bridge of a UEO flagship."

"Alaron fought her way onto it," he countered.

"Because the entire team was there."

Jack's jaw clamped together, sliding one way just the littlest bit. "Fine."

Commander Ford left the two alone again, and it was only after he left that Jack made one final request to Major Carter.

"Can you tap into their security system?"

Her eyebrows rose. "Sir?"

"Can you. Tap into. Their. Security. System?"

"Probably but—"

"Good," he said, standing. "Do it."

"I thought we trusted them," she said, concerned.

"We do," he amended. "I just don't like being kept at arms' length when this is obviously involving us. How often do you think this sub gets hacked… for lack of a better phrase? It's as secure as the SGC."

Sam nodded. "I'll look into it, sir."

"Excellent," he said, doing his Burns imitation. "I'm going to check on Teal'c." And with that he left.

"Sure you are, sir," she said, shaking her head. "Sure you are."

* * *

By the time Ford made it to Lucas and Piccolo's quarters after visiting the Colonel and the Major, Captain Hudson had already joined Brody and the group surrounding the handcuffed scientist.

"Who is he?" Ford asked.

"He claims to be Doctor Allen Carter," Brody answered him.

"But?" Ford said, shrugging.

"There hasn't been a science contingent on here since the _seaQuest_ made her reappearance," the Captain replied.

"He came aboard a week before we discovered the stargate three weeks ago, when we were at dry-dock for a resupply" Lucas said, as he appeared on the vidlink in his own quarters. He was still on the Bridge, monitoring the work being done on the virus but felt like adding in his two-cents.

"That was a quick trip, Ensign. They were in and out in three hours while we were docked for supplies," Hudson said, irritated.

"Yeah, and it looks like he was signed out as he left, Captain," Wolenczak added. "But that doesn't mean he actually left… obviously."

"Don't 'obviously' me, Ensign. Find out what the hell he's doing here."

"I did that, sir. According to this, he hasn't always gone by the name Doctor Allen Carter. It's an add-on sanctioned by…" Lucas laughed once, not really amused at all. "Section Seven… and it looks as if by extension, the UEO also granted it."

Hudson put a clamp down on his rising anger, breathing deeply once before looking at the Doctor. "Who are you, really?"

"Where is SG-1?" The Doctor asked.

"I don't think you understand how this works," Hudson said to him. "I've had too many things happen on this boat lately. Who the hell are you?"

"Agent Carl Bent, NID/Section Seven."

The Captain spun on the vidlink screen. "Get that, Ensign?"

Lucas nodded. "Yeah, searching now." Typing sounds could be heard through the vidlink.

"Good." He turned back to Bent.

"But it's not what you think!" Bent argued. I'm not working with her!"

"Her?"

"Alaron."

Hudson's eyebrow raised. "Who's Alaron?"

"The Goa'uld, you moron!"

"I never said anything about a Goa'uld…"

"But thank you for confirming the Colonel's suspicions that this is, in fact, about his team," Ford said, pissed. "Should I inform him, Captain?"

Hudson rolled his eyes. "He probably already knows. Ensign?"

Lucas looked up from his computer and into the vidlink, "Nothing yet, sir. Aside from confirmation that he was involved with the NID and later Section Seven."

"What are you doing here?" Brody asked Bent.

Bent sighed. "I came to make things right, to make what my organization did _right_… I'm here to kill SG-1, before _she_ can."

"Well they're quite the popular bunch, aren't they?"

"Why are you here to kill SG-1?" Hudson questioned.

"To make things _right_," Bent said sincerely.

It only angered Captain Hudson more. "To make _what_ right?"

"The past."

"_What_ past!" Hudson shouted. "Why are you here? What is your purpose? Stop giving me three-word answers."

"Is it really them? Is it really SG-1?"

"Yes."

"Then they've reappeared too late. That's what I'm here to correct. They need to go."

"_Why!_"

"To clean up the NID's mess, that's why!" Bent blurted out, wishing he'd kept his cool the second the words made it past his lips. _Way to go. Just tell them everything, why don't'cha?_

"What… mess?" Ford asked.

"They sent the team of Marines with SG-1," Lucas said over the vidlink, his eyes wide as he read off something.

"Ensign?"

"The Marines were commissioned by the NID for some reason… the money I sent to Section Seven was used for a project called Storm. Looks like Mycroft never stopped his ways after all."

"What do you mean?" Hudson asked.

"He was working as a double-agent for a while, pretending to be soldiers superiors. He told us at Node 3 what really happened. Looks like his last order was to get _someone_, me, I guess, to send money to the Section Seven account so that they could build Project Storm."

"Which is?" Ford asked.

"A time travelling device, built from Ancient tech," Carter said, joining them in Wolenczak and Piccolo's quarters, Jack in tow. "I'm right, aren't I?" she asked of Agent Bent.

"Oh, Daniel's just going to love that," Jack said.

"Hammond, too," Sam agreed.

"But why?" Hudson asked Bent.

"SG-1's search for the San Graal was taking too long. Planet after planet was being taken by the Ori," Bent explained truthfully. "Every extra terrestrial ally we _had_ was falling to Origin."

"So what? You make a time travel device to do _what_?"

"When SG-1 went missing, it set us even farther back in the war with the Ori than we already were. While the war did end, it came at the cost of years wasted and millions of lives taken. It wasn't worth it. Section Seven put Project Storm into action. It took them years to figure out what they'd do and years to implement. But once things happened at Node 3 with the money…"

"They were able to get people to volunteer for the job by paying them off," Jack finished for him.

"What exactly _was_ the device?" Sam asked Lucas through the vidlink screen.

"It doesn't say and I can't find it anywhere. All I've got is that that's where the money went to. Anything else, you'd have to ask him," he said, gesturing toward Bent.

"So what?" Jack asked. "You pay off a bunch of Marines owned by Section Seven to jump a wormhole into the past, land themselves on an SG-team, get them through the stargate with SG-1 and _what_… _hope_ you'll help us… them… whatever… find the weapon earlier?"

"Yes," Bent said simply.

"So what happened to muck up your plan then?"

"The Marines got in the way… or so it appears," was all Bent said. But then he looked at Jack and his eyebrows furrowed. "You're Jack O'Neill."

"Yeah… so?"

Bent's eyes widened. "You weren't…"

Jack's eyebrows rose. "Weren't _what_, buddy?"

"You're not the same SG-1 that went missing on that mission were you?" Bent said, almost to ask.

"No."

Bent paled.

"Yeah," Lucas said through the vidlink. "You almost _killed_ the team your Section was trying to _save_."

"But because 'we' came back…" Sam started. "You were the one who stole the footage weren't you?"

"Carter?"

Bent nodded.

"Sir… with all the issues we've had with the NID in the past, it's not so hard to imagine them being able to get into Cheyenne Mountain, take what they needed to cover up their mess, and move on. They probably didn't even know what hit them."

"It still doesn't solve the issue of what actually happened to SG-1," Hudson pointed out, glancing to Bent for answers.

"That, Captain, I do not know. I really don't know what happened on that mission. The Marine who survived long enough to resign fell off the face of the Earth. We don't know what happened to him."

"Sounds like the truth, sir," Ford muttered in Hudson's general direction.

"I'll take that into consideration, Commander. Brody, get this man to the brig… but don't let him anywhere near the Goa'uld."

"Yes sir."


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Big, big updates. Okay. First off, I am VERY sorry about the lack of updating. School's been crazy, life's been worse and work's somewhere in between. I don't know if me updating individual chapters shows up, but in case they don't I basically went through all the chapters once more to read them and add things here and there, because when I sat down to finally write this again, I realized I didn't remember what was going on in the story anymore. That being said, only the first chapter really got stuff changed around, so you won't have to re-read anything. I do have the rest pretty outlined-out and all, and have begun writing it, so it will all be up soon. There's not much left. Sorry, again, and I hope everyone enjoys a new chapter!

... I also ran into issues while trying to re-upload chapters... so if everyone got updates for EVERY. SINGLE. CHAPTER. again... I'm sorry... -mirage24

Chapter 11

With most of the situation figured out, minus finding the Goa'uld still aboard the ship, Captain Oliver Hudson ordered Ensign Wolenczak and Major Carter to finish working out their plan to get home. In truth, Hudson didn't want to prolong it any longer than necessary. The longer they remained in 2032, over two decades outside their own time, the more they were at risk of completely erasing the future.

When they reached the answer to their solar flare problem only a mere two hours after Bent's capture, both Carter and Lucas were less than happy.

"Twenty minutes? We only have an _twenty minutes_?" Carter asked, coming to stand over Lucas at his work station. "That can't be right."

He slid his chair to the left to give her room to take a better look. "It is. You guys have to get ready to go."

She shook her head. "There's a Goa'uld still loose on the boat. We're going to help you find her."

"We've had weirder," he said off-handedly, sliding his chair back in front of the work station.

"Weirder?" Carter questioned.

"Uh, yeah," he said, unsure of how much information to divulge, although he wanted to give her enough to convince her it was true. "Giant squid, crazy primeval alien, glowing fish poo, the ghost of an Atlantean—and that's just what's happened _inside_ the boat."

Both her eyebrows rose. "Oh. Well. Wow." She laughed once. "That's up there with the time we've all swapped bodies, when we were cloned into robots, travelled back in time to 1969—oh, and this one time we got stuck in a time-loop."

"Ooh, a good competition indeed," Lucas conceded.

"You should tell your Captain," she said. "I'll go find the Colonel."

"Remember, you only have about fifteen more minutes."

"Don't worry about it, we'll make it."

Somehow, he wasn't so sure.

* * *

Carter made it all the way to the Bridge before she realized something was wrong. It was far too quiet for a sub currently looking for an intruder. When she went to go through the clam doors, she realized they weren't open.

She looked to the panel that she'd seen Hudson use to open the doors half a dozen times and tried to combination. Nothing.

_What the hell?_

Sam depressed the key on the panel that allowed her to speak with the Communications Station. "This is Major Carter, is Colonel O'Neill on the Bridge? I need to speak with him."

Again, nothing.

"Hello?"

When she received no response for the third time, she backtracked to the lab Lucas was working in, startling the young Ensign.

"You already found him?"

She shook her head as she said, "Something's going on on the Bridge. Can you check it out from here?"

She didn't really need to ask, as he was already on it. His fingers flew across the keyboard, bringing up one of the many security cameras on the Bridge. "Not good."

Sam peered in closer to see Alaron on the Bridge, holding it hostage. All of the crewmen were in the middle of the room, sitting on the floor.

"Not at all. Can we get in there another way, Ensign?"

He thought for a moment, one side of his head raising. "Not that I can think of that she wouldn't have already blocked off. Our best bet is to try to make contact."

"Then do it."

He nodded.

* * *

"You don't want to do this," Brody told Alaron.

"And why not? I've got this boat right where I want it. All that's left is to surface her," she said, going over to the correct console. "In about thirty minutes, I'll be home free."

"Except for the fact that you've left the two geniuses on the boat to roam free. One knows the Goa'uld and the other knows the ship," Jack pointed out. "It's only a matter of time."

"But how are they going to get onto the Bridge? Not that they would risk your lives anyway."

"To protect this boat, they will," Hudson countered.

She waved him off. "A different matter entirely. I need the boat in-tact. The _seaQuest_ isn't going anywhere but up." She pressed a few keys on the proper console and the sub shifted and began rising.

"At our current depth it'll take the time you have left before the next solar flare window to get yourselves home, at which point I'll be free to kill you and the great SG-1 will be no more. The System Lords will rise again and—"

"Oh cut the melodramatic crap, please!" Jack shouted. "No one cares!"

"This is Wolenczak calling the Bridge." Lucas and Sam's picture appeared on a screen via vidlink connection. "Sorry for overriding security protocols, sir. I figured this was an okay time to do that."

"Understood," Captain Oliver Hudson said.

* * *

"What do you want?" Sam asked.

"To surface the _seaQuest_ and take SG-1 with me, of course."

"It's not gonna happen," Lucas said, typing away.

Alaron's hand hovered over a panel. "Want to test that theory, Ensign Wolenczak."

"What's that she's got her hand over?" Sam asked.

"The ballasts," Lucas replied. "I'm trying to override it in case she tries to blow them but—"

"Let me out of here with the Shol'va and you all will live," Alaron said. "Deal?"

"I don't think so, lady," Jack said, forcing himself up into a standing position.

Captain Hudson followed suit, along with Brody, Ford and Piccolo. Surely with the five of them, they could take a single Goa'uld, even with the hands tied behind their backs.

But before they could make a single further move, Alaron slammed her hand down on the button. The ballasts blew and the entire boat rocked with the force, knocking the men off their feet. Alaron ran toward the clam doors, opening them and ran out of the Bridge.

* * *

When Sam and Lucas recovered their respective footings, they were out of the lab. Sam headed toward the Bridge and Lucas toward the only exit off _seaQuest_—Launch Bay.

Sam entered the Bridge effortlessly this time, running to Colonel O'Neill first, who was more pissed than anything else. She helped them out of their bonds and the crewmen rushed to their stations, trying to balance out the sub.

"Sir…"

"I know Carter. We'll be finding another way home."

She looked at him apologetically. He responded with, "We're going to the Brig. I'm willing to bet she's headed there or MedBay for Teal'c."

"I got MedBay," Daniel said, running off with Piccolo who was his back up.

"The Brig?"

"She can't be happy with Bent knowing what's going on, either. He's part of the reason she got caught."

* * *

As Carter, O'Neill and Hudson converged on the Brig, the already knew something was amiss. It wasn't until they came upon Bent's dead body in his cell that they knew Jack's original guess was right.

He turned to Hudson. "Is there another way off this tub?"

"Launch Bay," Sam said. "Lucas was headed there—"

Hudson turned abruptly and ran out the room, the PAL already in his hand.

* * *

Ensign Lucas Wolenczak stood in between Alaron and the launch she was trying to hijack to the surface. He was determined not to let her pass, but realized that if she could not only catch three-fourths of SG-1 off guard and then take them in a fight, he stood as no threat to her. It's not that he was tiny, he just wasn't as built as the rest of the guys. Wasn't as trained. And he had no gun.

"Move out of the way."

"You don't even have Teal'c," he pointed out. "What do you hope to gain by running away now?"

"My life? What are you going to do to stop me?"

"This is the Bridge. All hands brace for surface impact in less than a minute," Communications Officer Tim O'Neill's voice came over the ship-wide frequency.

Alaron smirked. "Now I won't even need the Launch."

A puzzled look crossed the young Ensign's face. "Meaning _what_?"

"Don't let her touch her wrist device!" Jack shouted as he came into Launch Bay with the Captain and Carter in tow.

"Wha—" but even as he asked, he saw the Goa'uld reach for it. He lunged at her, aiming to grab her hand away from her wrist, be ended up falling with her.

The wrestled for a few moments before she thew him off of her and across Launch Bay, where he landed with a loud _thud_ on the other side of the room. Carter ran to him and checked his pulse as Jack took the Captain's side-arm and aimed it at Alaron.

She pressed the large button on her wrist device milliseconds before Jack pulled back on the trigger, her body beaming upwards into thin air before the laser grazed her body.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Jack said, walking over to pick up a second wrist device Alaron had dropped. _Overkill much?_

"How is he?" Hudson asked Carter.

"Breathing. Knocked out cold but he'll be fine."

Hudson pulled out his PAL. "Med team to Launch Bay. Bridge, report."

"Stabilized before breaking the surface. I have McGath on the line for you, wondering what the hell is going on," Ford responded.

"Tell him I'll take the call in ten minutes in the Ward Room. Say nothing about SG-1 or what just happened. Tell him we were running a training run if you have to."

"Aye, sir. Bridge, out."

"That was a close call," Hudson continued after his conversation with Ford had ended.

"She still got away."

"But she won't come back, Colonel."

"And we can't get home," Carter said.

"Excuse me?"

"Lucas and I found a flare. The window expires in about thirty seconds."

"So she knew?"

"No, probably not. But that's not the point."

"There's got to be another way back," Jack said. "Think, Carter."

"The solar flare was the only way back we have! We're _on_ Earth. We can't gate back to it!" she said loudly, forcefully so that the Colonel would get the point. "We. Have. No. Way. Back."

"Think about it, Carter. That's an order."

She bit her lip, took a breath to check her frustration, and replied a forceful, "Yes, _sir_."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Carter sat at Lucas' work station on the Bridge. Since the danger had passed now that Alaron was gone, Hudson was a lot more lenient about where SG-1 could and couldn't go. They'd already ruined a lot of the future for them, so to speak, so it really didn't matter anymore. And with Lucas on bed-rest for another few hours (if Dr. Perry could keep him down there that long, considering the last two days being difficult), Carter was the only one left with even a bit of know-how on how to get them home.

They couldn't stay in 2032, that much was obvious. The team, along with the rest of the SGC, obviously still had major battles to fight but Sam just couldn't work out a way to get them home. She had played around with a few ideas, but figured at much of it had to be run by Lucas first. She got the feeling that anything beyond underwater communication was best handled by him, but only because the _seaQuest_ had apparently run into aliens before.

It would have been nice to know that before all things, that she was sure of.

It wasn't until Daniel came by to drag her away to the mess hall that she began talking her ideas out loud.

"Trying to find another solar flare might take too long," she said, talking around eating a sandwich. "And we might not even find one, anyways. At least not before Teal'c runs out of Tritonnin."

"You can't just guesstimate?" he questioned.

She scoffed. "No. Besides, if we show up before we left for P3C-225, we won't be able to use what we know to stop this from happening again."

"But who's to say that we'll cross paths with a solar flare?"

"I don't mean that."

"Sam, you of all people know we can't use what we've learned to change things."

"I'm not talking about changing the entire course of _their_ history," she said, defending herself. "I'm talking about making sure whichever NID agent that was originally behind this gets stopped—and if it _happens_ to be Maybourne, we could easily charge him with something else."

"Gotcha," Daniel smirked. "Be honest though, how much do you want it to be him?"

"Honestly? I don't know."

"Fair enough."

"Hey, mind if I join you guys?"

They both looked up to find Ensign Wolenczak holding a small tray of food.

"Of course," Daniel said, moving over slightly.

Lucas put the tray down on the table and pulled a third chair over.

"How are you feeling?" Carter asked.

"Better than before, but worse than normal." He shrugged. "Things happen. Did you find another way back yet?"

She shook her head. "Not really. I was just talking about it with Daniel."

"Another solar flare is not a real option," Dr. Jackson filled in. "But whatever we do, we have to do it quickly before Teal'c is out of Tritonnin."

Lucas nodded, moving the food around on his plate—a habit and stall-tactic against eating that he'd never shaken since the first tour with Dr. Westphalen. "You're right on that one. What about these Ancients? Can't they send you back?"

Daniel laughed and it was Sam who said no.

"I was thinking about the Asgard though," Carter said.

"I don't think the _seaQuest_ has enough power to dial the 8th chevron, Sam," Daniel pointed out.

"It doesn't have to. We just need enough power to boost a signal into space. If they're still watching us as closely as they always have, one of them has got to hear it."

"Especially if we've been missing for a while… that's a brilliant idea, Sam."

"Looks like you didn't need me after all," Lucas grinned.

"No, I do. I need your help rigging your Communications Station to handle a signal like that."

He shrugged. "It shouldn't be that hard. We could wire a WSKR."

"You really think they'll help?"

She nodded at Daniel. "They've helped Jack before, and they'll understand the situation. I'm also hoping they'll be able to somehow wipe our memories of this experience so we won't remember things."

"Let's get to it, then," Lucas said, a determined smile on his face. He still felt guilty over the fact that this all was, at least in some part, his fault. Without him going to Node 3, he would have never been in the position to have done this. Even still, had he just stopped to think about the consequences the first time Mycroft sat him down to do something, the action could have prevented the money from going to Section Seven. If only he had stopped Mycroft _before_ the World Bank operation…

* * *

Before anything was started, they decided to run the change of plans and new ideas by both Captain Hudson _and_ Colonel O'Neill. Neither really seemed pleased, though Jack was hopeful that the Asgard _would_ help.

"I just don't understand how," Jack said.

"I'm not sure, either sir," Carter responded. "They might be able to pinpoint the flares better and faster than we can, or maybe be able to temporarily re-wire the gate."

"It's the best solution we've got aside from doing the calculations ourselves," Ensign Wolenczak continued for her, more to Hudson than O'Neill, though. "And eventually _seaQuest_ is going to have to dock for something, sir. McGath might not be too happy to find out that you not only _found_ SG-1 but were hiding them."

"Except that we did not _find_ them, and this isn't the _right_ SG-1," Hudson challenged.

"Try explaining that to the Secretary General, sir," Lucas said, then backtracked. "With all due respect, of course. He may have gotten his head around _seaQuest_ disappearing for ten years due to being in space and all her surviving crew in stasis… but we're talking a major conspiracy gone wrong here."

"More like rescue mission, really," Jack chimed in, then sat up straighter in his seat. "Point being that Carter's right."

Sam nodded. "I'm thinking that, if anything, the Asgard can project better than we can. If they can find a flare that we can ride back from a different planet that we can gate to from here, we'd probably have a better chance at getting home within the next two days—after which point Teal'c will be out of Tritonnin and the rush might not matter anymore," she finished solemnly.

While his second-in-command might feel alright admitting the possibility of defeat, Jack was _not_. He'd get his team home in one piece, no questions asked. _Leave none behind_. He made a mental note to himself to remind Carter of that at a later point, though to be honest, he knew she really didn't need reminding. Her and the kid Ensign were just under pressure, with life and war dancing above their heads, something Jack was very well accustomed to.

He revised his mental note to tell Carter everything would be okay, instead.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Jack had gone back to MedBay after Carter and the Ensign kid informed them of the new "get-home" plan. He intended to check on Teal'c, who was doing much better than when he'd last seen him. He thought he'd wiped the questioning look off his face before he entered the room but he must have been wrong.

"Doctor Perry has found a combination of medications that somewhat imitates the effects of Tritonnin," he informed the Colonel.

Jack took a seat next to Teal'c bed. "An imitation of an imitation, great," he replied, although he knew this was a good sign. If their plan failed, Teal'c might be able to hang on a little longer (maybe more) until they could find a _new_ plan, a Plan C. "We'll get you back soon, T. Carter thinks the Asgard will help us."

"I am unsure of that."

That took Jack by surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I believe they would have intervened by now. Alaron must have a ship in orbit, and if the stargate has not been activated in some amount of years, it is doubtful they are close enough to reach without Stargate Command."

The Colonel though it over for a moment, then leaned forward in his seat. "Maybe you're right. Carter thinks they would have been watching Earth pretty closely after _their_ SG-1 disappeared. But even then…" He shook his head. "Carter wouldn't bother with it if she didn't think there was any chance it would work."

Teal'c nodded. "I do not question Major Carter's expertise, merely the current situation of the extraterrestrial affairs of this galaxy as opposed to how they were in our time."

Jack stood and placed a hand on Teal'c shoulder. "We'll figure it out," he said, before leaving again. He figured he should relay Teal'c worries to the Major before she got too crazy. Teal'c _did_ have a point, after all.

* * *

It was only a few hours before Captain Hudson had begun to bring the _seaQuest_ to the surface and the WSKRS had been wired to handle the signal. However, it was almost another five hours after that when Hudson started questioning the technique.

"We've been surfaced for over four hours, Ensign. Report."

Lucas looked to Sam. _Not good_.

She shook her head. "They should have been able to pick it up by now, if they were directly over head," she answered for Lucas, using the last phrase lightly. "We may have to boost it some more."

"I can't keep her surfaced for much longer without the brass coming here themselves to question each and every one of us." He may have been exaggerating, but it was no secret that McGath was not terribly happy with the lies Hudson fed the last time he called. The Secretary General had been willing (less so, rumor had it) to accept the "training run" pretense on the simple fact that they were, in fact, at war with Macronesia but for the very same reason, he highly suggested that the _seaQuest_ not make any other unprecedented moves or maneuvers.

Having her surface for almost five hours fell into the "don't do" category.

"I'm sorry, sir," she said. "We could always take her back down and wait. They haven't always answered immediately in the past."

Oliver was less than pleased, but kept it to himself and walked away from Ensign Wolenczak's workstation and over toward O'Neill's communications station. "Call Mr. Ford and Colonel O'Neill to the Ward Room," he ordered before turning to Lt. Brody. "You have the Bridge, Lieutenant."

"Aye sir."

* * *

"If the plan your Major set in motion were to work, how long would you give it to be set in motion?" Captain Hudson asked of O'Neill.

"The Asgard haven't answered yet, have they?"

Hudson didn't budge. "No."

Jack took a deep breath and leaned back into his chair, his hand at his face, rubbing the tension away. "Teal'c expressed the concern that they wouldn't. The plan was made on the assumption that things had remained the same in the great wide expanse up there. Obviously, it hasn't."

Oliver resisted the urge to point out the war with the Ori.

"There's no one else you can call?" Commander Ford asked.

Jack shook his head. "None that could get here on time, and even if they had, they wouldn't be able to get us home." His mind jumped to the Tok'Ra, but assuming they were even around anymore to begin with. They could probably bring something to help Teal'c but they would never have the technology they needed to get SG-1 home.

If they'd help them in the first place, which was something Jack had always considered fairly questionable.

"I'm giving her plan another hour before I pull the plug and send them back to finding a solar flare again," the Captain said decisively.

Jack nodded. "Yes sir."

There was really nothing he could do about it now. Even if he tried to reach the SGC, whoever it was that was in charge would more than likely not believe him. He resigned to giving it a shot, though, if Carter didn't get results within the next hour.

He stood and headed back to MedBay to check on Teal'c again.

* * *

**A/N:** I had realized (quite belatedly, actually) that I'd forgotten a pretty important event that happened at the end of SG-1's 10th Season, which greatly impacts why their "new get home plan" won't work. I don't want to completely spoil it for those who haven't seen "Unending" yet (the last episode of SG-1), and so I never state outright what happened (since SG-1 can't learn why, anyways- it'd change the future too much!). I just hope that the new plan is both not so complicated and yet still believable enough that it works.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

At exactly the "one hour" marker, Captain Hudson strode back onto _seaQuest's_ bridge, not wanting to be the bearing of bad news but knowing he had to regardless of that fact.

"Captain on bridge!" Brody announced.

Everyone snapped to attention.

Everyone except Carter, who was staring intently at her computer screen with headphones on.

Lucas nudged her shoulder. She looked to him and he gestured toward the Captain. Her eyes grew wide and she stood immediately. "Sorry, sir."

"At ease, everyone," he said, walking over to her. "There'd better be a good reason for—"

She nodded, not giving him time to finish his sentence before saying, "I think I've got something. Communications, can you confirm?"

Tim O'Neill glanced at his station. "No but…" He trailed off, flipping a switch or two and placing his headphones over his ears. He nodded, mumbled something quickly into the mic and then turned to the Captain. "Sir, I've got a Priority One Call coming in from an undisclosed location for Major Carter. He says it's important but that he won't identify himself to anyone but Major Carter. Something about not trusting the military anymore, sir."

Hudson's eyebrow lifted in curiosity. "Major?"

Her eyes shifted left and right as she thought. "Thor wouldn't need to send a transmission through the _seaQuest_… nor would any of the other Asgard."

"I'm more curious as to how this person got onto a Priority One Channel, Mr. O'Neill."

Tim shook his head. He didn't know either. Then person on the other end said something else and Tim directed the message to Carter. "He said something about an irrational fear of lemons."

Carter's expression at once became a portrait of mixed relief, annoyance and gratitude. "Put him on," she said, then belatedly, "If the Captain agrees, of course."

Hudson had long since gotten acquainted with SG-1 thinking they still ran everything, and so he put this small act behind him. "Do it. Main screen."

"Aye," Tim said, punching some keys on his screen. One last flip of a switch brought the central screen on the bridge to life, lighting up with an image of Dr. Rodney McKay's face.

"Seems you've found some new friends, Major," he said.

She smiled, stood from her station and joined Captain Hudson in the middle of the bridge so she would be in front of the screen, in full view for McKay. "Yes, some, Rodney. I thought you didn't believe it was me?"

He laughed once, but it turned into coughing fit. Once it subsided, he replied, "I didn't. But then my computer here chirped to life." He pointed to something off-screen. "You can stop searching for the Asgard now, by the way. They're not _around_ anymore."

"Meaning?"

He shook his head. "I can't tell you more than that."

"So you broke into a Priority One UEO Channel to tell the Major to give up?" Captain Hudson asked.

"Child's play," McKay stated as he shuffled something around off-screen.

Hudson looked to Ensign Wolenczak, who only shrugged. He wasn't sure if the Captain wanted to know whether or not it was child's play or if he wanted Lucas himself to admit that he could do it in his sleep—with his hands tied behind his back. A shrug seemed like an appropriate answer to that.

Hudson's lips pressed together in a hard line. _Now_ he was beginning to feel irritation. "Then why are you calling?"

"I'm here to give Major Carter and SG-1 a way home," he said resolutely. "I didn't think I would have to, but if it makes you stop searching for aliens who don't exist anymore, I've got you covered."

'Can I ask you something first, McKay?" Carter said.

"What is it?"

"Why do you have your home computers set up to recognize if we're sending a message to the Asgard?" she asked.

He waved the question off. "Not for you _or_ the naked, grey pipsqueaks," Dr. McKay said. "I had it set up to recognize certain signals. In case the Wraith ever came back. The Air Force has changed, Major. Ever since you went missing. That's all I'm saying."

"Wraith?" Hudson asked of Carter.

She shrugged. Sam had no idea what that meant. "How are you going to get us home, then?"

Rodney smiled. "It's complicated and I unfortunately no longer have the ability to explain it fully, however…"

A moment or two passed and Carter began to get worried again. What happened to McKay that he became so… Even in his eighties…

"I did make a recording after I told Cassie," he finally continued after a few more moments. "In case she ever needed a refresher."

That struck a chord with Sam. "What does Cassie have to do with this?"

"1969, Major?" Rodney challenged. He wasn't going to tell her so easily.

"But…" she couldn't even finish her response before it clicked. "You've got to be kidding me, McKay! We didn't figure out how to do it, yet!"

"But you _told_ Cassie when she turned eighteen that she would help you and SG-1 get back home one day by sending them back in time through the stargate! After you disappeared, she got worried and contacted me. We figured it out some amount of years later. And then I told her, because _you_ would no longer get the chance to."

"And because if you didn't, we would have never gotten back to our time period, thereby erasing our entire existence completely."

Hudson blinked. "Excuse me?"

She turned to him momentarily. "Don't worry about it. It's relatively irrelevant to our current situation, sir."

He nodded.

"I can send the video of me explaining it to Cassie if you want, so you can see for yourself and play it back if you need to. It's not so complicated, Major," he said with a smirk. "Even _you_ can figure it out."

She was going to bite back but then realized he was only joking. She chuckled once. Dr. Rodney McKay, baiting her even now, years later. Sam smiled. "Thank you, McKay."

"Don't mention it. I'm sending the file now."

"Received," Tim said, moments later. "I'm saving it to the vidlink in the Ward Room's hard drive."

"Thank you, Mr. O'Neill."

Rodney nodded on his side of the vidlink. "Get back home safe, Major."

"We will. Thank you."

He went to push the vidlink's off button but he stopped short and said, "Hey Sam?"

"Yes, Rodney?"

"You're still as beautiful as ever. I'll tell Jennifer not to worry about your team anymore."

"Jennifer?"

"My wife."

"Congratulations, McKay!"

He grinned. "See you on the other side, Major."

She nodded, and then the vidlink terminated.

A moment passed before Lucas cleared his throat and then asked, "Should I have O'Neill and Dr. Jackson join you in the Ward Room?"

Hudson nodded. "Yes. It's time to get SG-1 home."

* * *

**A/N: **I had to resist the urge to insert the phrase "wibbley wobbley, timey wimey" into a certain part of this chapter. To those who get the reference and know where it would have gone, yay for DW! :)


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Everything's here, sir," Carter told him. "It looks like he made this a while after he left whatever program Lucas found out he was a part of."

"That's good, Carter," Jack replied. "How long?"

She tilted her head to one side, looking at her notes. "Not long. Give me a half hour tops to get the wiring right."

"Good job!" the Colonel said, already heading for the door. "I'll get Teal'c up and ready, and drag Daniel from their Alexandria Book Store files."

"Library, sir," she corrected. "Library of Alexandria. And sir!" she said, catching him as he was almost into the hallway. "I'll need Alaron's wrist device!"

"I'll get it!" he called back from the doorway.

_Well there's someone ready to get home_.

"I think he's just excited because the Captain makes him nervous," Ensign Wolenczak said, joining her in the Ward Room. "It's already been a few months and he _still _makes the old bridge crew nervous sometimes."

"Old?" she asked.

He grimaced. "Sorry. That explanation probably falls into the 'can't tell you or it'll ruin your future' category."

Sam nodded. "Fair enough."

"Point is," Lucas continued regardless of his previous statement, "Hudson hasn't always been the Captain. And he's good," he said, catching himself, "don't get me wrong. I think it was just the rate at which the change occurred."

"He just suddenly came into command?" Sam asked.

Lucas shrugged, "You could say that, yeah."

"I know how that is. I'm sorry for your loss."

His eyes grew wide and he laughed. "Oh no! Not like that! Captain Bridger's not _dead_! Just… off on his own path now. The _seaQuest_ isn't exactly the same boat it used to be anymore."

She nodded in understanding. "I know how that is, too. Hey, thanks for everything, Ensign."

"Lucas," he corrected. "And it was no problem at all, Sam. I miss working on the fun stuff sometimes. Let me guess," he said before she could, "You know how that is, too, right?"

"War can get in the way a lot and it can happen very quickly," she said. "So yes. Getting to work on the 'fun things' is refreshing sometimes."

He flashed her one of his Cheshire cat grins and said, "Well it's not over yet!"

Carter stood from the table. "Not at all. Let's get to it."

* * *

Twenty minutes later and Jack was just joining Carter and Lucas on Sea Deck as they sat in front of the stargate's DHD. She was pointing something out to him and they were nodding, laughing even but when Jack got close, he saw the serious look on both of their faces.

Daniel and Teal'c with both in tow, with Captain Hudson and Commander joining them just a few moments later. Jack and Daniel had all the team's gear in hand and laid it all to rest on the ground to the side of the stargate.

"How's it comin'?" Jack asked.

"Almost done, sir," Carter replied. She had already put on Alaron's wrist device on her left hand and was just finishing some last minute touches. "Done."

She stood and shook hands with the Ensign. "It's been great," she said again.

He returned the shake whole-heartedly. "Think nothing of it, Major. It's been a pleasure."

"It has," Captain Hudson chimed in. "However, if we don't get them back soon, a lot is going to change."

SG-1 put all of their gear back on and stood behind the DHD. They'd shaken hands and said their goodbyes, so that all that was now left to do was to go home.

"He reminds you of Lt. Hailey, doesn't he?" Jack asked, pointing to Lucas.

"Kind of, sir. He's just as brilliant. More so. That kid's going to go far." Carter, as she was talking, pushed something down on the wrist device, then dialed some of the buttons on the DHD. "Here goes nothing," she said, depressing the large red center of the second device.

The stargate began spinning and, seconds later, the kawoosh spilled forward.

"How do you know it worked?" Lucas asked.

"Only one way to find out," Jack answered, lifting a hand to his radio. He pressed the TALK button. "This is Colonel Jack O'Neill of SG-1 calling Stargate Command, do you read?"

A few moments passed before he tried again. "Repeat, this is sierra gulf one-niner, please respond."

'We read you loud and clear, Colonel," Walter's voice came back over the radio waves.

A collective sigh of relief has heard amongst SG-1.

"We're coming home. Please copy."

"Copy that, sir. The iris is down."

Jack let go of the radio and turned to the Captain. "Thank you again, sir. See you on the other side."

"No, thank _you_, sir," Hudson returned.

"Not yet," Jack said, turning back to the gate and his team. "Onwards and upwards," he gestured toward the blue horizon.

They entered the stargate together, returning home just a few days after the left. They'd only missed one scheduled check-in, but General Hammond had chalked it up to normal SG-1 "adventure chaos".

Within a day, their memory of what happened had started to fade, and Carter had only time to consult her notes once to understand why. But interfacing the way home with the wrist device, McKay had done the right thing in allowing it to wipe their memory. SG-1 already knew the weird things the devices could do after Daniel's experience years ago with Sha're's. Before their memory had faded completely, Jack made sure General Hammond had called the President about potential rouge-NID activity regarding money laundering in the future.

He only hoped that was enough to keep from making repeats of a history they sought to fix.

Three days later, SG-1 was back on the frontlines.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N**: The epilogue's not cruicial to the story in this case, I just had thought of some interesting scenes and What-If's? along the way, such as could SG-1 have been intertwined with the _seaQuest_ crew later on, had these two universes actually been one in the same? So here's some fun, random, side-bit after-thoughts.

I hope everyone liked the ending, and I just want to thank everyone for reading and reviewing along the way :D It's been fun! See you around. - mirage24

Epilogue

_"Hey, Sam, have you seen these yet?" Daniel asked with extreme excitement as he came through the doors to her lab, papers in hand._

_ "Seen what?" she asked as he placed the files in her hands. "You shouldn't be waving those blue-prints around but yeah, I've seen them. Looks like it's going to be one helluva sub."_

_ "Are you kidding? Do you know what we could _do_ with a boat like that?"_

_ "We're the Air Force, Daniel."_

_ "I'm not talking about the SGC, Sam. I mean, archaeology. How many sites are now underwater, sites that are totally worth looking into," he said. "I'm talking the Library of Alexandria. Ancient lighthouse sites. Temples. The meaning of life kind of stuff."_

_ She smiled. "Too bad you can't add Atlantis to that list."_

_ He shrugged. "I'll get there eventually."_

_ Sam nodded. "Eventually."_

_

* * *

_

"Mayday, mayday this is _seaQuest_ _DSV 4600_."

_ "Sir we're picking up a transmission," the communications officer aboard the _Odyssey_ said._

_ The Captain came up behind him. "From who?"_

_ "_seaQuest_, sir. There's something wrong. What—"_

_ "What is it?"_

_ The communications officer shook his head, his hands flying over his keyboard quickly. "I don't know, sir. It just cut off, I—"_

_ "Captain! There's a hyperspace window opening ten miles from our current position. Source unknown," navigation reported._

_ "Who's supposed to be out right now?" he asked of the communications officer._

_ "No one. They're all out getting ready to intercept the—"_

_ The ship rocked._

_ "Ahead full toward that window!" the Captain ordered. "Now! I want to know who's taking _seaQuest_!"_

_ By the time they came upon the site of the hyperspace window, they were gone, _seaQuest_ and all._

_

* * *

_

_ "Well someone's got to find her!" Secretary General McGath shouted. It was not becoming of him to do so, but he was well past angry. He'd lost many good friends when _seaQuest_ disappeared three months ago._

_ "We're looking, too," Brigadier General Jack O'Neill said, trying to reassure the Secretary General._

_ "In what capacity, _exactly_, General?" McGath all but spat. He couldn't believe what the _Air Force_ was could do to help them when the only place _seaQuest_ could have gone to was the bottom of the ocean._

_ "I can't disclose that," O'Neill replied with full calm. "It's classified. Just know that we're doing our best. The _Odyssey_ was the last ship to hear the _seaQuest's_ last transmission."_

_ "You and your shuttles," McGath returned._

_ "It's more than just a shuttle."_

_ "Oh, I'm sure it is," he said. "Just call and tell me when the rest of it gets declassified so I don't have to listen to the Air Force's bullshit cover stories anymore."_

_ "Yes, Secretary General."_

_ Jack was the first to cut the vidlink._

_ He was getting too old for this._

_ Instead, found another number and dialed that one. It took a few moments, but then someone picked up on the other end. That someone looked at Jack questioningly. "General, how can I help you?"_

_ "I know McGath gave you rights to _seaQuest_ if she's found in one piece," he stated._

_ Captain Oliver Hudson nodded. "And?"_

_ "She's out there somewhere, Captain," Jack said. "I promise you that. Just don't give up the search."_

_ The General looked so serious, how could Oliver deny him that?_

_ "Yes, sir. I will find her."_

_ "I know you will, Captain," he said. "I know you will."_

THE END.


End file.
